Valby or Vanløse? Candidates in Copenhagen will fight for the local area.

Valby or Vanlose? Candidates in Copenhagen will fight for the local area

**********************************************************************

Candidates' postal codes can have significance for where we place our cross.

Even in large cities, candidates run for election to represent their local area.

If you prefer to set your cross by the politician who walks the same streets, shops in the same places, and perhaps has children in the same daycare center as you, it is possible for more candidates in Copenhagen to campaign specifically for representing their local area.

And it might pay off.

>

> Candidates who come from one's own area are perceived as being more engaged in local issues and having better knowledge of the local area.

> Valgforsker Ditte Shamshiri-Petersen

For many of us, we would like to set a cross by someone who lives in the same area as us, tells Ditte Shamshiri-Petersen, a valgforsker at Aalborg University.

- Candidates who come from one's own area are perceived as being more engaged in local issues and having better knowledge of the local area.

Read also: Here is the candidate's party color, it doesn't matter - a small town will have local candidates on the council ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/kommunalvalg/her-er-kandidatens-partifarve-lige-meget-lille-vil-have-lokale-kandidater-i-byraadet )

--------

#Vanløse

--------

One who stands out with where he comes from is Jens Wedelborg, who is a candidate for The Conservatives in Copenhagen Municipality.

On the posters that hang in the Vanløse district, it says #Vanløse. And if he captures a seat in the Copenhagen city council, he will also fight to have Vanløse on the agenda.

- It's where I experience my daily life and experience that the Vanløse district is also overlooked in relation to the rest of Copenhagen, he says.

More than 40,000 people live in Vanløse. And if you ask Jens Wedelborg, does the part of Copenhagen not receive enough attention?

- We feel that much politics revolves around Vesterbro, Nørrebro, Østerbro and the city center. Out in Vanløse we struggle with the same problems as the neighborhoods, for example parking and traffic, but we feel that we are not heard.

Jens Wedelborg (C) has both made a special election poster and printed flyers aimed at Vanløse. Photo: private

---------------------

Can be one out of 55

---------------------

However, even if a local candidate is elected to a council, a municipal council, or the Copenhagen city council, it is not certain that the local area will get its way.

For party discipline or general political compromises can limit one's actions, says Ditte Shamshiri-Petersen.

- All politicians come to a crossroads, where they have promised the voters they represent something, but then they must make compromises that prevent them from keeping it.

If Jens Wedelborg gets enough votes to capture a seat in the city council, he will be one out of 55.

How can you be sure that Vanløse gets something out of the fact that you sit in the city council?

- I get a mandate from the entire Copenhagen, but I have a detailed knowledge of the district, which I can bring into the committees. And I will also be able to speak with my colleagues in the city council and tell them what important issues in Vanløse are, he says.

You are also part of a party that is larger than yourself. Are you most a Conservative or a Vanløse candidate?

- I am both parts, but the party knows that my base is in Vanløse, and I speak for Vanløse. Now I am lucky to be in a party where there is a high ceiling.

And he is not concerned about his local affiliation scaring away the rest of Copenhageners.

- No, in no way. I am sure that voters in, for example, Østerbro can understand that local candidates have a focus on their own area. There is so much money in the Copenhagen budgets that it's just a matter of distributing it better.

DR would like to have asked Copenhagen's technical and environmental mayor, Line Barfod (EL), if she can recognize the image of Vanløse being underprioritized. But she has not had time to stand for election in this round.

Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=undefined )

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