Denmark has had a democratic system since 1848, which implies that the Prime Minister, the Government and the Parliament are elected democratically.Denmark is a monarchy as well, led by Dronning (Queen) Margrethe II, who ascended the throne in 1972. The monarch, however has no political power, but is to be reconed as a national icon.

The Danish flag, Dannebrog, which is red with a white cross, is acknowledged as the official flag by all Danes and according to an old saying this flag fell from the sky during a battle in Estonia in the middle ages. This myth can be seen as a symbol of the national unity of the Danes, a belief in unity that has helped Denmark become prosperous and successful.

Denmark along with other Scandinavian countries is known worldwide for its welfare system, wich was build up during the 20th century. Through this system, education, health care, social security for unemployed, pensions for the elderly and the disabeled and so on is financed through relatively high income taxes. Most of the Danes agree with the basic idea of this redistribution of money, allthough not to the extend of the system. This welfare system has diminished the gap between the rich and the poor and made the Danish population very equal as most people belong to the large middle class. The low poverty rates is probably a good reason why Denmark has also one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Denmark is a small, flat country, but is one of the nations in the world whose territory covers most water. Thus, Denmark covers 43.090 km2, spread out on more than 400 islands. However, this small nation has often played an important role in Europe. The country entered the EU in 1972, as well as internationally. Denmark used to be an agricultural society but has now moved on to be an industrial – or even post-industrial society.

Denmark has 4 seasons and no real mountains but the Danes are very proud of the highest hills in the country.  These hills are Yding Skovhøj (173m) in Skanderborg, Ejer Bavnehøj (171m.) and Himmelbjerget (147m.) in Silkeborg and Rytterknægten (164m.) on the island of Bornholm.

There are around 5 million inhabitants in Denmark out of which some 260.000 are immigrants or refugees that the Danish state has taken in. The Danes are staying on about 100 of the Danish island, including Greenland. The capital Copenhagen (København) is the largest city in Denmark with around 1 million inhabitants, while the other large cities in Denmark are Esbjerg, Odense, Aalborg and Århus.

The Danes became Christians almost 1,000 years ago and 90% of the population are members of the protestant Danish Public Church. Although the majority of the Danes are members of the church, they seldom go there except for traditional holidays such as Christmas and Easter. On Sundays the churches are not well visited but most of the Danes goes to church for christenings, confirmations, weddings and funerals. Thus, religion is found to be a personal matter and the Danes do generally not like to talk about it.

Parties and Politics in Denmark

In Denmark the political parties is divided into two groups or sides: the left (venstre) and the right (højre). The parties at the left are characterized as social or socialist:

1.           Socialdemokraterne

2.           SF ( Socialistisk Folkeparti )

3.           Radikale Venstre

4.           Enhedslisten

Whereas the parties at the right, the liberalist or conservative group counts the parties:

1. CD (Centrum Demokraterne)
2. Kristen Demokraterne
3. Venstre ( Danmarks Liberale Parti) the leading party in the Govenment.
4. Konservative, presently in goverment
5. Dansk Folkeparti

All these parties are divided into three groups according to their ideology:

1. The socialist group :

• Enhedslisten
• SF ( Socialistisk Folkeparti)
• Social Demokraterne

2. The socialliberal group, that are usually moving between the two other groups according to the chance of gaining influence:

• Radikal Venstre (RV)
• Centrum Demokraterne (CD)

3. The liberal and conservative group :

• Kristen Demokraterne
• Venstre ( Danmarks Liberale Parti); the party presently leading the Government.
• Konservative, presently in Government
• Dansk Folkeparti

Democratic process in Denmark

In Denmark there are fully democratic and direct elections on three levels:

1. Elections for the parliament (folketing)
2. Elections for the provincial council (region)
3. Elections for the local council (kommune)

The local and regional elections are usually held simultaneously every four year on the 15^th of November whereas the national elections are held at other times, also at least every four year.

All Danish citizens above the age of 18 has the right to vote and to be elected to both parliament, provicial councils and local councils, whereas foreigners with a permanent or temporary residence permit can vote for local and provincial elections only. The Danish women have had the right to vote and to be elected since 1915, and there are now a substantial number of female politicians and Ministers, but there has not yet been a female Minister of State in Denmark.

Usually candidates for the elections are nominated by a political party but some tend to run for elections without being members of a party, but, except for the local election, they are rarely elected. Everybody can start a political party in Denmark but in order to run for the elections a new party must collect at least 20.000 signatures from Danish citizens supporting their nomination for the parliament or 1,000 signatures for the lower level elections. This is done to eliminate the number of parties in the parliament as it could be difficult to work with too many involved parties.

Denmark has a long tradition for seeking some kind of concensus about important political decisions. Historically, this has meant that the politics of the various Danish Governments have been the result of negotiations between the majority of the parties in the parliament, a tendency that some says has been broken by the present government, that are usually only counting on the support of Dansk Folkeparti and thereby ruling out the opposition.

The Danish Government, however, has no final power to rule as all propositions for changes in the laws must be sanctioned by a majority of the members of the parliament and all constitutional changes must be dicided by a referendum.

Last Years Elections.

Last year, on November 15th elections for the local- and regional councils were held, and all over the country, the two biggest political groups, the socialists and the liberalists were struggling to gain power.

The majority of the offices in the big cities, where the population are predominantly professionals, academics or workers were won by the socialist parties (socialdemokraterne) whereas the offices in the small towns were won by the liberalists (Venstre) supported by wealty people, landowners and farmers.

From the result of the elections last year we can see a progress for the socialist parties, that has won most of the mandates on the local and regional level and there is a possibility that this group will win the majority of the chairs in the parliament as well in the coming elections.

Being a newcomer in Denmark it can be a little confusing that the name of the party “Venstre” means left, even though this party belongs to the political right.

How about Aceh?

Form this little introduction to the practices of a nation that are known to be sucsessful we should learn a little about how to create maturity and stability that will allow Aceh to develop in the future. The formation of local Acehnese parties could hopefully help Aceh catch up with the rest of the world. It will be up to the the laws and on the people of Aceh with their elected leaders who administrate them all over Aceh to answer the question: will Aceh remain peacefull after the long years of conflict or will it become worse yet.

We must remember that the responsibility for the development of Aceh lies on the shoulders of the Acehnese and must rise from the Acehnese people’s wish for development and not from other people’s advice or demand or from Acehnese who are busy with their own private economic or political agendas. Likewise, the involvement of women in all matters will speed up the coming development pocess.

The opnion of the Europeans we have met is that the Acehnese should hold on to the peace and the democratization process in Aceh to give shape to a new and prosperous Aceh.

The difficult question we ask ourselves now is: who will lead Aceh in the future? But this wondering is just a part of a process that the Acehnese must go through to find leaders that are actually chosen by the Acehnese people and working for the Acehnese People.

If this is carried out by the Acehnese in full peace and whatever is important for the people is decided by the people we might live to see the revival of Aceh past prosperity, or even better. I think that in the future the people should be given the authority to decide what is best for Aceh. For example, in controversial matters the government should let the people make the decision, so that all that is carried out has the full support of the Acehnese.

At the end of the day the Acehnese must take responsibility for obtaining what we want. Hopefully, if the Acehnese stand together in every way a setback to previous tragedies can be avoided. Furthermore, I do not beleive that the precence of a large policeforce in Aceh will make Aceh more secure as it is always claimed by people who are in charge of the police.

I hope that the choise of the Acehnese will be development and prosperity in the land of my ancestors that have already shead so much blood, lost so many souls and left so many orphans and widows. I hope that the tears of the past will be wiped away by the fullfilment of the rights of the Acehnese people and the removal of the evil dictatorial system and corrupt elite.