Volt appeals to the Home Affairs Commitee at Parliament
No other EU country requires new parties to document ALL their voters BEFORE standing. In Denmark, the number of voter declarations is defined based on how many votes it would take to get elected.
Therefore, there are no new parties today that are not led by celebrities or fully funded by business people.
So how do we actually get a healthy democracy with new voices?
Attempts at lowering Europe's highest voter registration rate fail - politicians don't want new parties.
It was the European Movement Against the EU that contacted Volt as they had proposed to lower the requirement for voter endorsemnts for the European Parliament from 2% of votes cast in the last EU elections to the same number required to stand in the Danish parliamentary elections.
In connection with this, Volt asked to appear before the Home Affairs Committee to discuss B39: the proposal to lower the number of voter declarations required to be admitted to the ballot.
On Tuesday 16 May, Volt was granted an audience with the Home Affairs Committee. Of the 29 members of the committee, 5 showed up for the meeting and the live streaming was not working, so our members could not follow the proceedings online.
Here is our submission, which asks the question: How do we get a HEALTHY democracy in Denmark with real access to the ballot paper? With declining party membership, we shouldn't be afraid of having too many parties - we should be afraid of not having enough parties!
10 days later, Volt receives the answer.
The Ministry of the Interior by Sophie Løhde assessed that voters have an expectation that parties on the ballot paper can be voted in and therefore a similar number of voter declarations must be collected as it would take to be voted in.
Volt believes that voters should have an expectation that parties that want to be nominated have positions that they want to debate in the public space - getting on the ballot paper is an opportunity to participate in the debate, but Minister of the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde elaborates on the consideration for voters:
There is a consideration for voters, who already have to navigate between many parties in the European Parliament elections. As a voter, you also have an expectation that the party you've voted for can win a seat in the European Parliament. Therefore, I think it's fair to the voters that a party has a certain level of support from the voters before it appears on the ballot."
