The police reported that the mayor's party will be the largest in Tønder.

Stormy weather surrounding the sitting mayor's pig farm in Tønder Municipality does not seem to have scared voters away.

On the contrary, the Slesvig Party has gained 12 percentage points compared to the municipal election in 2021.

The incumbent mayor from the Slesvig Party, Jørgen Popp Petersen, was reportedly police-reported eight times over the summer and during some stormy weather. TV2 first reported that he was reported to the police eight times (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/borgmester-politianmeldt-otte-gange) for breaking the law on his pig farm.

This occurred during a period from 2019 to 2024, during which the Food Authority found conditions on his pig farm so serious that the Authority chose the harshest possible sanction: police report.

Jørgen Popp Petersen has since stated that he will close his pig farm and expressed regret for the situation.

The Slesvig Party called Popp Petersen for a meeting, and after the meeting, the party continued to have faith in their mayor (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/slesvigsk-parti-har-fortsat-tillid-til-toender-borgmester-trods-flere) , and he was therefore to find a place on the ballot for the party in the election.

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What is Slesvig Party?

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The Slesvig Party is a regional centrist party that is represented in all the southern Jutland municipalities and originally only represented the German minority's interests. Today, the party focuses on broader issues and engages in the entire Southern Jutland and the region's development.

The Slesvig Party values broad cooperation in the council highly and aims to promote cross-border cooperation between Denmark and Germany. Therefore, they also advocate for open borders.

The party also aims to ensure cultural diversity – especially when it comes to the German minority – but also among other minority groups.

Voters have given them 25 percent of the votes, and the party therefore receives eight seats, which is a doubling compared to the last election.

However, it requires 16 seats to constitute as mayor, and therefore it is far from certain that Tønder's largest party will be able to retain the mayor's chain.

See possible constitutions that could be in Tønder Municipality in the video here:

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Won mayor's chains in 2021

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In 2021, it was a bit of a surprise (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/kommunalvalg/joker-fra-tysk-mindretal-loeber-med-borgmesterposten-foran-kamphaner-i) , that it was the German minority party that ran for mayor's chains and snatched them right in front of the noses of both the incumbent mayor and the Social Democrats' candidate.

Jørgen Popp Petersen was able to gather support from 21 of the council's 31 members and gathered all the parties behind him - except for Tønder List and the Social Democrats.

He replaced Henrik Frandsen, who today sits in the Folketing for the Moderates, but who at the time had been mayor for the local list Tønder List. This happened despite the fact that Tønder List at the time received 29 percent of the votes and therefore was the largest party in the election.

This ensured that Henrik Frandsen did not become mayor in his time, and now time will tell if the same fate befalls Jørgen Popp Petersen.

You can follow the results of the municipal election in our liveblog here:

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.