Red–Green Alliance (Denmark)
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The Red–Green Alliance or Unity List ( da, Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne, , EL) is an
eco-socialist Eco-socialism (also known as green socialism or socialist ecology) is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization or anti-globalization. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expansi ...
political party in Denmark. It was founded in 1989 with the merger of three
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
parties and it is the furthest left-wing party in the
Danish parliament The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands an ...
, where it advocates for an expansion of welfare and
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
as well as socialist transformation in Denmark and internationally. During the 2021 Danish municipal elections the party placed first in the Danish capital
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, with 24.6% of the votes. The party is also active in various Danish trade unions.


Political and ideological position

The party describes itself as a socialist and democratic grassroots party, which claims also to represent
green politics Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It b ...
,
peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...
,
anti-discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
, and
trade union movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...
. The party's ideological position is set out in a manifesto from 2014. It proposes that a socialistic society of the future "neither can nor should be described in detail, but rather be developed and shaped by the people living in it". It describes socialism as "an answer to the problems caused by capitalism such as non-sufficient democracy, crises, destruction of nature, inequality, racism and war". Holding
anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
and
soft Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...
views, about the economic system it says:
A new and actually democratic system of society requires fundamental changes in the ownership of the means of production, such as companies, land and natural resources. Collective forms of ownership will be dominating. We propose that public authorities, co-workers, local communities and other collectives of persons should own and run institutions and companies. ... A democratic economy means a democratic work life as well. The work place should be characterized by democracy, and the employees must have a constitutional right to decisive influence on the organization of work in the workplace.
The Red–Green Alliance recognizes that methods achieving this may differ depending on the course of class struggle, but will eventually require a revolution—one that must be supported by a majority of the population manifested through democratic and free elections. The party often adopts particular views in relation to the other parties in the Folketing and opt out of many of the settlements reached, seen as an expression of class collaboration. Until the conditions for the party's long-term goal are presented, the party will use its seats in parliament to vote for any improvement and against any deterioration of working-class people's lives. In line with this, the party agreed at its national conference in 2010 that if
Helle Thorning-Schmidt Helle Thorning-Schmidt (; born 14 December 1966) is a Danish retired politician who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to have held each p ...
became Prime Minister after the 2011 election, the party would vote for a "red" budget bill that did not contain obvious flaws.


Policies


Social policy

The party places great emphasis on the fight against
social inequality Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...
and poverty, and is in favour of strengthening and expanding the
welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
. The party believes there is place in society for all forms of diversity, including gender, sexuality, disability and ethnic background. It also advocates for a larger public sector, among other things, to improve quality of life for public sector employees. The party believes people should be free to choose when they want to get an education and is opposed to
tuition fees Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spen ...
, which they believe harm opportunities for everyone to acquire an education. The party does not see unemployment as being equal to laziness and seeks to abolish the Danish equivalent of
workfare Workfare is a governmental plan under which welfare recipients are required to accept public-service jobs or to participate in job training. Many countries around the world have adopted workfare (sometimes implemented as "work-first" policies) to ...
.


Economic policy

The party is decisively anti-capitalist and has particularly distinguished itself as an opponent of
transfer pricing In taxation and accounting, transfer pricing refers to the rules and methods for pricing transactions within and between enterprises under common ownership or control. Because of the potential for cross-border controlled transactions to distort ...
, whereby multinational companies minimise the amount they pay in tax by attributing their profits to countries with lower tax rates. In response to the
Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
, the Red–Green Alliance urged stricter control of loans, the introduction of a
Tobin tax A Tobin tax was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another. It was suggested by James Tobin, an economist who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Tobin's tax was originally intended to penali ...
, and the
nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of banks and mortgage companies. It also believes that the public sector must be expanded, the wages of the lowest-paid workers should be raised, and the insurance-based unemployment benefit period should be extended to a minimum of four years. At the same time, students should be given a greater state education grant. At minimum, all benefits should be raised to 13,500 kroner per month before taxes.


Foreign policy

The party advocates for foreign policy based on respect for human rights, which it believes has not been appropriately prioritised in the past. It also proposes greater support for developing countries through a doubling of foreign aid, and campaigns for Denmark's withdrawal from
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
. In March 2019, the party announced it would no longer campaign for a referendum to leave the EU, pointing to
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
illustrating the need for clarity before withdrawal can be considered. The party operates on the fundamental belief that peace is preferable to war, and has been opposed from the beginning to Denmark's participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That principle was challenged in 2011, when the party's parliamentary group voted in favour of Danish participation in the UN-sanctioned military action in Libya on the basis that it was a humanitarian action. However, the decision led to significant backlash, and the party's support was pulled back after the military intervention began.


History

The party was formed in 1989 as an
electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...
of three left-wing parties:
Left Socialists Left Socialists ( da, Venstresocialisterne) was a political party in Denmark. The party worked on what it called an "undogmatic revolutionary and Marxist basis". It was formed in 1967 as a split from the Socialist People's Party (SF). In 1989 ...
(VS),
Communist Party of Denmark The Communist Party of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Kommunistiske Parti, DKP) is a communist party in Denmark. The DKP was founded on 9 November 1919 as the Left-Socialist Party of Denmark (, VSP), through a merger of the Socialist Youth League and ...
(DKP), and Socialist Workers Party (SAP). Originally the plan was to unite these parties alongside
The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...
(De Grønne),
Common Course Common Course ( da, Fælles Kurs) was a political party in Denmark, which held 4 seats in the Danish parliament from 1987–1988. History Common Course was officially founded in 1986, but it was built on several factions of the Communist Party of ...
, and Humanist to form a broad-based progressive movement, but this did not materialize. A fourth party, the Communist Workers Party (KAP), succeeded in joining the alliance in 1991, but its involvement was vetoed a year later by DKP. Prior to the 2007 parliamentary election, the party enlisted
Asmaa Abdol-Hamid Asmaa Abdol-Hamid ( ar, أسماء عبد الحميد) (born November 22, 1981) is an Emirati-born Danish social worker and former politician living in Odense. Family background Abdol-Hamid is one of seven children.
, a Danish
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
candidate who identified herself as a feminist, democrat, and socialist. She is endorsed by some imams, opposed by others (including those in
Hizb-ut-Tahrir Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabicحزب التحرير (Translation: Party of Liberation) is an international, political organization which describes its ideology as Islam, and its aim the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) to resume Isl ...
), wears a hijab and will not shake hands with men.Imamer anbefaler Asmaa
Kristeligt Dagblad, 1 May 2007
These facts, and some of her statements regarding politics and religion, made her the target of some criticism across the political spectrum, particularly from the
Danish People's Party The Danish People's Party ( da, Dansk Folkeparti, DPP/DF) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Denmark. It was formed in 1995 by former members of the Progress Party (FrP). The DPP lent its support to the Venstre– C ...
. Some left-wing figures cited her candidacy as a reason for withdrawing their support from the party.Kære Asmaa
Information, 1 September 2007
An anti-religious network was created within the party with the stated goal of turning the party into a solely
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
party with a materialist
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
basis.Religionskrig hos Enhedslisten
aalborg.dk, 20 September 2007
During the campaign, there was some speculation as to whether her candidacy would attract or repel voters.Asmaa kan sprænge Enh's partiliste i København
, Politiken, 2 November 2007
Ekspert: Asmaa har skræmt marxisterne
, Politiken, 1 November 2007
The results of the election were 2.2% for the party, down from 3.4% in the 2005 parliamentary elections. Although not elected, Abdol-Hamid maintained that she had attracted voters to the party. The four seats won by the party went to Frank Aaen,
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen (born 22 February 1984 in Odense) is a former member of the Danish parliament for the Red-Green Alliance. Schmidt-Nielsen has been referred to as the "new queen of the Red-Green Alliance" by parts of the press.Sjølie, Mar ...
,
Line Barfod Line Barfod (born 24 May 1964, in Copenhagen) is a lawyer and politician in Denmark. She is a former member of the Folketing (Denmark, Danish parliament) for the Red-Green Alliance (Denmark), Red-Green Alliance. Line Barfod is the daughter of ret ...
, and Per Clausen. In the 2011 parliamentary election, the party received 6.7% of the vote and tripled its representation from 4 seats to 12 seats. The party contested the 2013 local elections on a platform of improving public transport and making greater public investment. As part of the left-leaning "Red bloc" coalition with the
Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...
, the Red–Green Alliance accepted the state budget twice and was in opposition twice in the period from 2011 to 2015. But at no point did they report direct opposition to the government. In the 2015 general election, the party received 7.8% of the vote and increased its representation from 12 seats to 14 seats.


Electoral performance


Parliament

The distribution of Red–Green Alliance's voters is geographically disparate. While in Nørrebro and Vesterbro districts of Copenhagen, it was the strongest party in the 2015 election, scoring 26.5 and 20.8% respectively (in
Bispebjerg Bispebjerg, more commonly referred to as Nordvest (English: North-West), is one of the 10 official districts of Copenhagen, Denmark. Located on the northern border of the municipality, it covers an area of 5.39 km² and a population of 40,033 ...
it received 22%, placing it only slightly behind the Social Democrats), the party is much more weakly positioned in rural parts of Denmark, taking only an average of 4.5% of votes in Western Jutland with as little as 3.1% in the
Ringkøbing Ringkøbing (older spelling ''Ringkjøbing'') is a town in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality in Region Midtjylland on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in west Denmark. It has a population of 9,894 (1 January 2022).European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, preferring to support the
People's Movement against the EU The People's Movement against the EU ( da, Folkebevægelsen mod EU) is a political association in Denmark against the European Union. It was founded in 1972 as a cross-party campaign platform for a 'no' vote in Denmark's referendum on EEC members ...
, a Eurosceptic party whose MEP sits in the
European United Left–Nordic Green Left European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...
group. Some of the party's MPs were considering running an independent list for the
2014 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2014. * 2014 United Nations Security Council election 16 October 2014 Africa * 2014 Algerian presidential election 17 April 2014 * 2014 Botswana general election 24 October 2014 * 2014 Comorian presi ...
, but this idea was dismissed by a majority on the party's yearly meeting. In a historic decision in the party's yearly meeting in May 2016, a majority decided to directly contest the 2019 European Parliament election.


Membership


Elected representatives


2022 Danish general election

*
Jette Gottlieb Jette Ryde Gottlieb (born 23 September 1948 in Copenhagen) is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Red-Green Alliance political party. She was elected into parliament at the 2019 Danish general election, and was previousl ...
* Peder Hvelplund *
Rosa Lund Rosa Lund (born 4 December 1986, in Copenhagen) is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Red–Green Alliance (Danish: Enhedslisten) political party. She was elected at the 2019 Danish general election, and previously sat ...
* Søren Egge Rasmussen * Søren Søndergaard * Victoria Velasquez *
Mai Villadsen Mai Minna Villadsen (born 26 December 1991) is a Danish politician who is a member of the Folketing and the political spokesperson of the Red–Green Alliance. Villadsen has been a member of the Folketing since the 2019 Danish general election. E ...
* Pelle Dragsted * Trine Mach


See also

*
Politics of Denmark The politics of Denmark take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state in which the monarch of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II, is the head of state. Denmar ...
*
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen (born 22 February 1984 in Odense) is a former member of the Danish parliament for the Red-Green Alliance. Schmidt-Nielsen has been referred to as the "new queen of the Red-Green Alliance" by parts of the press.Sjølie, Mar ...


References


External links

*
Official website
*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Red-Green Alliance (Denmark) 1989 establishments in Denmark Ecosocialist parties Political parties established in 1989 Party of the European Left member parties Socialist parties in Denmark Eurosceptic parties in Denmark Anti-capitalist political parties Green political parties in Denmark