Elections Elsewhere

I’m settled into Copenhagen, spending time with my 4 year old Danish granddaughter nearly every day. She’s different in person than she is on Facetime, less cautious and much more of a goofball, so that’s been fun. We’re reading Charlotte’s Web. It was touch and go there for the first chapter where the dad almost murders the baby pig but we got through that and now she’s enjoying Fern and Wilbur and the rest of the gang.

I had a bit of a dental emergency so had to go to my son’s Copenhagen dentist - she turned out to be Swiss. It cost about half what it would have cost in rural NW Ohio - I simply have no clue anymore why US healthcare is so expensive. I understand medical tourism and I know people go to Mexico or Turkey or Poland to save on procedures but when Denmark and Sweden, high wage and high standard of living countries, are a bargain compared to the US something has gone very wrong.

Denmark has elections coming up - the PM called a snap election because her political party is quite popular right now because she stood up to Trump. I call that The Trump Effect - decent people hate him so they’ll rally around a pol who treats him like the moronic scumbag that he is.

My daughter in law is a permanent resident now so she’s been educating me about Danish politics. Denmark requires immigrants to pass a Danish language test to qualify for permanent residency. It’s a “level 4” test, which is roughly equivalent to the level of fluency and vocabulary expected of a high school senior. My daughter in law speaks Danish, German, Italian and English so it was not that difficult for her, although it is a hard language to learn. My son still not passed his Level 4 test so his Danish employer is paying for private Danish lessons for him - he has a 2 ½ hour class every Wednesday evening.

There are 13 larger political parties in Denmark (along with many more smaller ones) and Denmark strictly regulates campaigns, so these are the political ads:

They also have the kind of political “talking heads” shows we are familiar with, but people really have to seek out info on candidates and parties - they won’t see any ads other than these posters and clips on public transport.

Mr. Engel- Schmidt just LOOKS like a moderate, doesn’t he? I can almost hear him patronizingly lecturing me about how I’m too het up about something or other. He would definitely have a NYTimes column in the US.

You gotta be careful though. “Venstre” means “Left” in Danish, and yet this candidate is a “classical conservative” and a free marketeer and so is her party.

My husband pointed this guy out so now I tease him that he chose the CEO -looking person. Strong jaw, very manly. Too bad he’s the Danish version of a Winger!