Denmark’s new coalition partners at odds over direction of research policy

A decade of tight political control over Danish university research has left academics eager for change. But their hopes for more academic freedom under a new centre-left coalition may be thwarted by fundamental disagreements between coalition partners over research policy.

Denmark’s centre-left block ousted the long-ruling right-wing government in the country’s general elections on 15 September. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s Social Democrat Party is expected to form a coalition government with the Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People’s Party, with parliamentary support from the smaller Red-Green Alliance. Jointly, the four parties took 89 seats in the Folketing, Denmark’s 175-seat parliament, giving them a three-seat majority over the rest.