The European centre’s favourite trick, when losing voters, is to explain that democracy is under grave threat and that power must therefore remain inside the circle of “sensible” centrists who know why voters are wrong.
Starmer embodies the British variant of centrism: despite promises of real change, only managerial declinism has emerged
Denmark has now provided the latest demonstration. Almost ten weeks after the election, Mette Frederiksen has secured another government. Her Social Democrats suffered their worst result since 1903, falling to 38 seats in a parliament of 179. Yet after months of negotiations, the result is another Frederiksen-led minority government, bringing together the Social Democrats, the Social Liberals, the Green Left/SF and Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s centre-right Moderates.
Not a purely centrist government, but one shaped by the centrist instinct: manage the fragments, keep the approved circle intact and prevent a real rupture with the existing order.
So the voters moved away. The centre manoeuvred. Much the same political class stayed in charge. Responsibility was declared.
