60 percent of Danes now reject new US bases in Denmark

[TomWilm]

A new poll show that the relationship between Denmark and the United States is currently at a low point. 42 percent of Danes say NO, while only 30 percent believe the agreement should be accepted, according to this poll made by prominent conservative news papers

The government's proposal for new US bases will be dealt with in the Parliament in April, but if it was up to the population of the country, the agreement should not be signed.

Two researchers who specialize in the US -Denmark relationship point out that the results are a clear picture that that relationship has changed lately:

"It is interesting that there is no majority in the Danish population to ratify this agreement with the United States. There is a feeling in the Danish population that you cannot count on the Americans anymore,” says Mikkel Runge Olesen, senior researcher in foreign policy and diplomacy at the governmental think tank DIIS.

[Translated from the Danish news paper BT]

The fact that a majority in the population is against new US bases might not affect the decision of the Danish government. Several smaller political parties have asked that the decision should be postponed, but it will probably still be forced through by a social-democratic and liberal coalition.

Realistically there is no way the Danes can keep the US from entering Denmark and using it as a military platform. After Wold War II the Danes asked the US to get out of Greenland again, but had to accept the occupation anyway, which included nuclear arms and enormous construction projects.

The proposed new US bases are planned to be in the Southern Denmark, and changes nothing for the much more important existing US base in Greenland.