Denmark's far-right topped opinion polls Friday as the nation's once dominant Social Democrats crashed in popularity.
The Dansk Folkeparti or Danish People Party - once the butt of jokes - was the biggest winner as voters deserted the old centre-left certainties.
The poll, in the daily newspaper Politiken, put the Folkeparti on around a fifth of the vote, about the same as they got in last year's general election.
But the Social Democrats lost a quarter of their support, plunging below 20 per cent in what one Politiken analysts referred to as a "negative tsunami".
Denmark's Social Democrats are now polling even lower than their Scottish sister party, Labour, after their 2015 Tsunami.
The reason for their decline: backing asylum policies seen as brutal in much of the rest of Europe.
Extra Reading: Columnist Iain MacWhirter on last year's Danish general elections
Politiken ran a cartoon showing Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen looking out of her window on a multi-cultral street with a red rose, symbol of her party, wilting in a jar.
Migrants: Politiken, below, reckons tough asylum policies have hurt Social Democrats
Human rights activists have denounced the move as degrading and inhumane.
The Danish government says it is simply applying the same rules to migrants as to Danes who receive social benefits.
But the row has propelled Denmark - usually seen as a bastion of Nordic tolerance and relaxed "hygge" cosiness - in to the international limelight.
Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei this week withdraw his works from two museums in Denmark
Speaking of the new law, he said: "Basically it's an insult to human dignity to have that kind of policy."
The world media poured scorn on Denmark, with one cartoon in The Guardian portraying Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen as a comedy Hitler.
The Guardian wasn't the first do put some hair on Mr Rasmussen's lip. Last year Egyptian-born Danish stand-up comic Omar Marzouk did the same.
The result of this world attention: significant soul-searching; a rejection off the Social Democrats; and a rise in support for parties opposed to the new law.
Alternatives, a new party, has nearly doubled its support to more than nine percent support .
Party leader Uffe Elbaek told Politiken: "This represents a huge rift in society."
The Dansk Folkeparti - parodied in the hit TV series Borgen as the Freedom Party featuring gauche leader Svend Åge Saltum in the video below - gained just one per cent. Mr Rasmussen's centre-right party Venstre lost one point.
The Social Democrats dominated Danish politics in the 20th century. The party's Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the daughter-in-law of Neil Kinnock, was prime minister until last year. Ms Thorning-Schmidt, pictured below with David Cameron, left politics this month to become chief executive of Save the Children.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel