Rivals in Danish vote: It's all about the economy

Denmark's two main political rivals locked horns over the economy in all-day campaigning on Thursday in a parliamentary election that may end the centre-right coalition's 10-year rule, according to Reuters. Opinion polls showed the "Red bloc" of Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt leading incumbent Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen's "Blue bloc", largely due to voter anger about Denmark's economic plight. But the gap narrowed heading into Thursday's vote, which was taking place under more security than usual. "It is going to be a tight race. We will fight to the end," Rasmussen said on national broadcaster DR's TV news before heading off to cast his ballot. A series of overnight polls showed the Red bloc leading with a range of between 51.1 and 52.7 percent support against a range of 46.9 to 48.9 percent for the Blue. In a razor-tight result, the vote for smaller groups including the centrist Social Liberals, the anti-immigration Danish People's Party and four parliamentarians from North Atlantic dependencies Greenland and the Faroe Islands could be decisive in forming the next government. Rasmussen and Thorning-Schmidt started the election day with a joint appearance on TV at which they prepared a breakfast involving a slab of fried pork, reflecting Denmark's role as one of Europe's largest producers of bacon and pork. But the message they both gave during the day was that their opponent could not be trusted in the kitchen. Rasmussen appealed to voters to stick with him. "We (should) stay on the course that has (brought us) reasonably through the crisis, create new optimism in Denmark, not create obstacles to private consumption and not make it more expensive to be Danish," he said. But Thorning-Schmidt, who would become Denmark's first female prime minister if she wins, argues that Rasmussen has failed to spur growth and taken the country deep into deficit. "We can together create history this evening," she told reporters. "We can say farewell to 10 years of bourgeois rule that has stalled and get a new government and a new majority in Denmark." Her platform includes increased government spending, along with a plan to make everyone work 12 minutes more per day. An extra hour of productivity each week, it is argued, would help kick-start economic growth. IT'S THE ECONOMY The state of the economy has been the overriding issue of the campaign, with the governing parties, like others in Europe, under fire for presiding over the worst downturn since World War Two. Denmark has been spared much of the trauma suffered by west European countries because it remains outside the euro zone. This means it is not involved in bailing out debt-laden countries like Greece, an issue that has stirred popular anger in neighbouring Germany. But the economic crisis has turned Denmark's healthy surpluses into deficits, forecast to climb to 4.6 percent of GDP next year. Danish banks have also been struggling, with small bank Fjordbank Mors falling into the hands of administrators in June, the ninth Danish bank to be taken over by the state since the start of the crisis in 2008. Thorning-Schmidt, an ex-member of the European Parliament, is part of an extended European political family, married to the son of Neil and Glenys Kinnock. Neil was a European commissioner and British Labour Party leader, Glenys a European parliamentary deputy and Europe minister in the last Labour government. Rasmussen, widely known by his middle name Lokke in part because he is Denmark's third unrelated Rasmussen prime minister in a row, is best known on the international scene for hosting the U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009. His leadership at the talks, which failed to agree on binding emissions cuts, was criticised.