Mike said:
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They did appoint Lomberg as environment minister (he's the guy
that claims that pollution is ok). The current noise in Denmark is
over shutting out immigrants, reinforcing the view that
"right wing" = "hate immigrants".
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i was reluctant to bring up the "immigration" issue because, too often
in europe, right-wing rather equates to foreigner hate as opposed to
conservative economics.

this relates, i fear to my earlier post about fundamentalist nutbars of
all stripes. in the cases of denmark and in the netherlands, very
progrssive and tolerant people have been driven into the arms of the
right-wing hate mongers because islamic fundamentalists have abused the
ever-so tolerant welcomes (i'd welcome wilko's perspective on this).

as i see it, denmark and holland are current manifestations of every
small="L" liberal's dilemma -- we can tolerate just about anything
expect intolerance.

as i see the dutch situation (the recent killings of right-wing
politician and playwright) the dutch, with their multi-pillar approach
to society were fairly tolerant of islamic refugees/immigrants...
however, it was when the islamics decided that the system was too
tolerant for their religious belief and started agitating for change
that the dutch populace turned...

i liken it to someone coming into the usa and trying to change the
constitution (outside of the normal amendment process). this tolerance
was a cornerstone of what defined the netherlands: it was not
negotiable.

my view (and i stand to be corrected) was that the upsurge of the
right-wing can be attributed to pig-headed fundamentalism (in this case
islamic).

again, i'm of the impression that the danish situation is a parallel.

frtzw906