Danish Social Democrats want to outsource asylum

The Danish Social Democrats, currently in the opposition, have proposed a new plan for asylum policy. According to the proposal applications would be filed outside the EU and asylum centres transferred to North Africa or countries in the Middle East. Some commentators see this as a good idea; others criticise it as a sign of re-emerging nationalism.

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Berlingske (DK) /

An important signal to all of Europe

The proposals are sensible but they can't be put into practice in the short term, Berlingske points out:

“In the long term this is a good and correct vision for Denmark's future policy on immigrants. But it's just a vision, the realisation of which depends on many factors. This, however, should not prevent Denmark from implementing it step by step. ... The key signal is that Denmark and Europe must now work on how to react to future streams of refugees. In Europe Denmark has an ally that campaigns for the same model, and if the carrot-and-stick approach is used to exert enough pressure on those countries that are to host the asylum centres, nothing is impossible.”

Dagens Nyheter (SE) /

Social democratic welfare nationalism

Dagens Nyheter is not surprised by the alliance between Denmark's Social Democrats and the right-wing populist Danish People's Party:

“Weren't the Social Democrats and the People's Party supposed to be eternal enemies? Things aren't as simple as that. Neo-nationalist parties like the Danish People's Party and the Sweden Democrats like to come across as welfare parties. ... And social democratic rhetoric and practice has always had a more or less clearly nationalist hue. Populism and social democracy can meet half-way in welfare nationalism. In Denmark this already seems to be the case. In Sweden one hopes that [Social Democratic Prime Minister] Stefan Löfven will be able to halt this trend.”