Non-citizens should not be allowed to vote, let alone run for local elections.
This speaks legions about how far our society values have fallen, if the simple demand of CITIZENSHIP first before running for public office is considered ”controversial”. We have raised a couple of generations of buffoonish politicians who couldn’t claw their way out of wet paper bag even if they were wearing steel claws.
Being a citizen should be the goal of any immigrant, integrating oneself into that society should be prerequisite for citizenship with the prized goal of all that entails once becoming one. Being allowed to vote without citizenship cheapens what it means to be a citizen, being allowed to run for public office as a foreigner, totally rips apart the meaning of citizenship altogether. This is basic civics 101.
A total of 355,881 foreign nationals are eligible to vote in the 2017 municipal and regional elections – an increase of 33 percent on 2013, according to figures recently published by Copenhagen thinktank Tænketank Europa. Of those, 179,989 are EU citizens – four percent of all eligible voters in Denmark.
Foreigners should not be allowed to run in Danish local elections: DF
Parliament will on Thursday open discussion of a proposal by the party to introduce rules requiring non-Danish citizens to pass an extended Danish language test before being approved to run in the elections, TV2 reported on Wednesday.
Opposition MPs and an international candidate in the 2017 regional elections have voiced their opposition to DF’s stance.
Martin Henriksen, immigration spokesperson with DF, told TV2 that his party would prefer Danish citizens only to run in the elections.
With no support for that position to be found amongst parliament’s other parties, DF is instead proposing stricter language requirements for prospective foreign candidates, he said.
“We will therefore try a slightly milder model, whereby we can at least agree that you should be able to speak and understand Danish to take part in Danish democracy. So we are proposing a Danish test should be passed as a minimum,” Henriksen told TV2.
