**Analysis:** A crooked smile and a sarcastic jab hint at three governing parties unwilling to compromise before the election.

The government parties are unsure whether they are friends or foes by the end of the year, as seen in their likely last joint plan.

Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen (S), Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M), and Economic Minister Stephanie Lose (V) presented the long-awaited government 2035 plan at a press conference in the Ministry of Finance today. *(Photo: © Ida Marie Odgaard, Ritzau Scanpix)* Rikke Gjøl Mansø ([email protected])

Political Analyst

14 min. ago

A slight, almost hidden smile played on Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s (M) lips during today’s major government press conference when a journalist asked who, between the other two top ministers—Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen (S) or Economic Minister Stephanie Lose (V)—had most obstructed Løkke’s grand ambition of a comprehensive economic 2040 plan.

When Nicolai Wammen dismissively replied that none of the three governing parties had stood in each other’s way, Løkke’s single eyebrow rose as he glanced down at his watch.

For it was not the ambitious economic plan that Lars Løkke Rasmussen had dreamed of that the government could present today at a long-awaited press conference.

The reason isn’t that the sums in the government’s 2035 plan, *"A Strong Denmark in an Uncertain World"* (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/regeringen-saetter-milliarder-af-til-forsvar-og-lavere-moms-men-gryden-er-snart-tom), are small. The plan allocates billions and billions of kroner—particularly for defense, emergency preparedness, climate security, green transition, and welfare—the major expenses that must be funded over the next decade.

But the government finds the money in the vast economic leeway. That is, without proposing new reforms that generate additional funds. As Løkke put it with his usual flair for linguistic imagery at the press conference: It’s starting to look like an empty pot. You can see the bottom now.

This doesn’t just face criticism from the blue opposition and business groups, who call the plan unambitious, disappointing, and lacking in vision. It also reveals that the governing parties, in an election year, have no desire to commit to major compromises among themselves.

Why risk political conflict when you don’t know if you’ll still be allies—or back in the old roles as bitter enemies—by the end of the year?

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**A thinly veiled jab at the Social Democrats**

Løkke’s dream of a bold, comprehensive 2040 plan wasn’t just about military buildup but also economic revitalization, as he framed it last year. But that battle was lost in the government’s internal negotiations.

Similarly, he failed to secure clarification of the future pension system in the joint plan. A demand he made after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced in summer 2024 that the Social Democrats would renegotiate the automatic increase in pension age under the welfare agreement.

A message now over a year and a half old that the Social Democrats have yet to elaborate on. They’ll only do so once the election campaign—officially underway—is in full swing.

And that led Løkke to deliver a thinly veiled jab at the Social Democrats today. For the welfare agreement is a *"fundamental precondition"* for the Danish economy, he emphasized. And if that precondition *"crumbles,"* everything falls apart in the long run, came the warning.

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**Today’s press conference turned into a campaign event**

Today’s press conference may well be the last of its kind, where the government’s top leadership presents a unified major policy proposal.

Though the three top ministers stood side by side to unveil precisely a joint plan, the conference quickly devolved into discussions of each party’s individual election promises.

Nicolai Wammen was thus prompted to mention the Social Democrats’ proposal for a *"Little School"* (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/overblik-hvad-er-socialdemokratiets-vision-lilleskolen). A five-billion-krone initiative not financed in the government’s 2035 plan, but one the Social Democrats have pledged to present a *"socially just"* funding solution for before Danes head to the polls. The proposal received a very cool reception from the other governing parties.

Stephanie Lose followed suit by highlighting the Liberal Party’s (V) proposal to cut development aid by over six billion kroner to redirect funds toward welfare and other priorities instead. A move Løkke declared he was *"extremely disappointed"* by from his former party.

He also had to remind journalists—and his two coalition partners—today to *"keep focus"* on what they were supposed to present:

- Not three parties’ election manifestos, but the government’s 2035 plan, Løkke insisted, before still going on to note that the Moderates would campaign on lowering taxes—and would do so again.

On one point, however, Løkke, Wammen, and Lose were entirely in agreement: a clear joint signal to all other Folketinget parties. Any election promises they make during the campaign must be self-funded. The era of financing almost anything through fiscal leeway is over.

As Nicolai Wammen put it, there’s no room for *"all possible and impossible things"* once mandatory expenses are covered—unless new funds are brought to the table.

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