Denmark:Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged yesterday to honour promises to cut taxes and keep the flow of asylum seekers in check after his election victory.
Mr Rasmussen (54) defeated 40-year-old Social Democrat leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt in Tuesday's parliamentary election, winning the slimmest possible majority for his sitting Liberal-Conservative coalition government.
"We will do our best to achieve a broad majority in several areas. The first area is welfare quality reform, for which I would very much like to have a broad agreement in parliament," he said.
Under Mr Rasmussen, the number of foreigners granted asylum in Denmark fell almost 80 per cent to 1,095 in 2006 from 5,156 in 2000. The prime minister has also delivered two rounds of tax cuts since winning power and has promised more next year.
Analysts predicted he would also use his new mandate to resist big salary rises in tough public-sector wage talks next year and may take the opportunity to make cabinet changes.
"I definitely think there will be a major shuffle of the government," said Copenhagen University politics professor Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard.
The prime minister called the election 15 months earlier than required in a move to capitalise on a strong economy and 33-year-low unemployment.
His Liberal-Conservative coalition and its far-right ally - the Danish People's Party (DPP) - took a total of 89 seats in the 179-seat parliament. A supporting party won one of two seats in the Danish territory of the Faroe Islands, sealing a majority.
"Historically there has never been a Liberal [leader] that held power in three consecutive elections. It's a unique achievement that the Liberals largely have Rasmussen to thank for," said the right-wing daily Jyllands-Posten.
Ahead of Tuesday's vote, it looked as though Mr Rasmussen would need the added muscle of the fledgling New Alliance party, founded six months ago by Syrian-born Danish Muslim Naser Khader, to govern. But in the end he kept his majority.
Now he has secured victory without the New Alliance, Mr Rasmussen is expected to make few real concessions to the party.
Kasper Hansen, a political scientist, said the New Alliance's core issue was to counter the power of Pia Kjaersgaard's anti-immigrant DPP. "Now they are not needed. Fogh Rasmussen will work to get a more comfortable majority in parliament, but now he doesn't need the New Alliance," he said.
- (Reuters)