Mayor’s advice to politicians: Talk together instead of talking past each other

The fragmented political landscape after Denmark’s general election will require compromise, and national politicians could learn from their local counterparts, reports DR. In Viborg Municipality, broad cooperation has become standard practice.

Katrine Fusager Rohde, the Venstre mayor of Viborg, urges politicians at Christiansborg to prepare for compromise in upcoming government negotiations. “You could start by avoiding talking past each other,” she says.

Viborg’s city council includes nine parties, from the far-left Red-Green Alliance and the Alternative to the right-wing Denmark Democrats and Danish People’s Party. After the last local elections, all parties joined the agreement on the mayoral chain—a model for cross-party collaboration.

“Politicians should sit down and agree on the tasks they need to solve together, then meet each other halfway,” Rohde suggests, using the Danish phrase “hug a heel and clip a toe” to describe pragmatic give-and-take.

Asked how she would approach forming a government, Rohde says: “When so much energy goes into declaring who you won’t work with, I’d start by figuring out if they really mean it. If people refuse to cooperate, don’t waste time on them.”