Denmark’s new parliament is record-breaking in multiple ways – it’s the youngest and most female ever, and saw the shortest-ever gap – just four days – between an MP being elected and becoming a so-called ‘freelancer’. But what is that, and why is it important?
idler, literally a ‘free-walker’, has historically referred to someone without a job or a fixed abode, similar to a vagrant or vagabond in English.
It originally started as a tongue-in-cheek name for independent members of the Danish parliament, who officially are referred to instead as being in the category UFG, standing for outside the parliamentary groups (outside the parliamentary groups).
Over time, however, it has become the standard term used in the media and in conversation among Danes to refer to an independent member of parliament.
Only one person has ever been elected to the Danish parliament as an independent: comedian Jacob Haugaard in 1994, who promised among other things tailwinds on all bike lanes, better weather, Nutella in field rations, electric kettles to all over-60s and “bigger Christmas presents for everyone”.
He also pledged to make former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher the trainer of the Danish national football team. As you can probably figure out, he was unable to deliver on many of his election promises.
In 1953, Hans Schmidt was technically also elected as a vagrant, although in practice he was standing for the Schleswig Party, a regional party representing the German minority in North Schleswig in southern Jutland.
Every other Danish independent MP ‒ and there have been more than 80 of them throughout the years ‒ has become an independent through leaving the party they were originally elected for ‒ either voluntarily or through expulsion. Many of those switched to different parties after becoming independent.
Four of the current party leaders, including Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Moderates), Inger Støjberg (Denmark Democrats), Lars Boje Mathiesen (Citizens’ Party) and Morten Messerschmidt (Danish Peoples’ Party) were at one point independent MPs.
Why is this important for the current government?
The word vagrant (vagrants in plural) has been in the news recently as the current parliament has already broken a record for the shortest time between the election and an MP becoming independent ‒ just four days.
That was Jacob Harris, who on March 28th became independent after he was expelled from the far-right Citizens’ Party after he was accused of misusing funds from a bankrupt company.
He was followed shortly after by Cecilie Liv Hansen, formerly of Liberal Alliance, who reportedly lied to party leadership about her partner selling illegal drugs.
On April 4th, yet another MP became independent – Emilie Schytte, also of the Citizens’ Party ‒ who in a post on Facebook called the party a “pyramid scheme of hypocrisy”, with all power sitting with its leader, Lars Boje Mathiesen.
Schytte was already under fire after Radio IIII revealed that claims she made on her CV did not appear to be true, although she said this was not linked to her decision to defect.
Finally, on May 3rd, a third MP from the Citizens’ Party defected, Nadja Natalie Isaksen. The party now only has one remaining MP, founder Lars Boje Mathiesen.
As independents, these MPs are no longer affiliated to a party and are essentially free to ally themselves with whoever they want or join whatever party they want, despite originally being elected for a specific party.
The fact that four MPs have already become independent ‒ all from the right-wing bloc ‒ could also affect ongoing negotiations to find the country’s next government.
In the election on March 24th, the red bloc achieved 84 seats and the blue bloc achieved 77, with the non-aligned Moderates holding 14 seats, which will play a crucial role in achieving the 90 seats needed for a majority.
It already looked unlikely that they would achieve a majority ‒ a number of parties in the bloc have refused to collaborate with each other ‒ but now the possibility of a blue-bloc government looks even more distant.
With four new independents dropping out of right-wing parties, that puts the blue bloc’s seats at just 73, which means that it will need the support of at least two of the four independent MPs, as well as the Moderates, to achieve a majority.
