'It's Okay to Be Ordinary': Danish Party Launches Campaign Against Woke Ideology

Among others, the Danish People's Party wants to ensure that children in primary school are not “indoctrinated with the 'fact' that there are 71 different genders”. Furthermore, it will ensure that no state support is given to artists who commit political vandalism and no mandatory gender-neutral pronouns are introduced into the Danish language.

The national conservative Danish People's Party has launched a campaign against woke ideology and identity politics.

Named “It's okay to be ordinary”, the campaign advocates concrete political measures. Among others, the party wants the so-called Chicago principles on freedom of expression written into the University Act, so that it is explicitly stated that it is not the universities' responsibility to ensure that students or others are not triggered by teaching or research.

Furthermore, the party wants to ensure that children in primary school are not “indoctrinated into the 'fact' that there are 71 different genders”.

Among others, the Danish People's Party will ensure that no support is given to artists who commit political vandalism against other works. Lastly, it is against the use of gender-neutral pronouns, which are gaining ground across Scandinavia.

“The entire identity ideology is about making each individual person so uncommon that it becomes distinctive and thus break down the whole idea of ​​community,” Danish People's Party Morten Messerschmidt said, as quoted by Danish Radio. “It is simply a threat to the cohesion of our society. That is why we've come up with a number of political initiatives,” he added.

According to Messerschmidt, people shouldn't let themselves be “ruled” by a “small minority who have challenges with the gender they were born with”.

“You are welcome to deviate. But there is also something that is normal,” he mused.

According to Messerschmidt, the problem is quite common, especially in the education sector. He drew parallels with the popular Marxism of the 1970s.

“When some people start to problematise what 80 percent of the population consider quite common, then it is a serious attack,” Messerschmidt concluded.

According to political commentator Hans Engell, though, the authors of the anti-woke campaign have witnessed an embattled party leadership, that is desperate for a new winning cause.

“For many years, the party has had the immigration policy as its trademark, and over time other parties have taken over parts of it,” Engell mused. According to him, many would agree that identity politics has gone too far and has started to become hysterical.

Meanwhile, professor of political science at Aarhus University Michael Bang Petersen ventured that there is not much Danish support for the woke movement to begin with. He cited a recent study, in which 8 out of 10 Danes said that special considerations such as one's gender identity or ethnic background shouldn't be taken into account.

The Danish People's Party was founded in 1995 reached its peak in 2014, winning the European Parliament election in Denmark by a wide margin and securing 27 percent of the vote. This was followed by it receiving 21 percent of the vote in the 2015 general election and becoming the second-largest party in Denmark. However, since then the party has struggled to reach similar levels of support, falling to just 8.7 percent in the 2019 Danish general election and half that in local elections.