"I belong to a government" - Martin Lidegaard acknowledges his mistakes from the last election and does not wish to repeat them.

Radical Left rejected a seat at the current government's table. However, this should not be the case moving forward, according to the political leader Martin Lidegaard.

(Photo: © Søren Lorenzen/Ritzau Scanpix)

By Amalie Rokkedal Simonsen ( [email protected] ) 10 minutes ago

When the current SVM government was formed again in 2022, Radical Left was invited to the negotiating table. After several hours of negotiations, the political leader Martin Lidegaard

A decision that was certainly not easy for him.

- Why was it so hard to say no? Well, because I am a power player. I belong to a government, he says in DR-program 'Middag med magten' ( https://www.dr.dk/drtv/serie/middag-med-magten_506538 ).

That he - a power player - still ends up saying no to joining the government, is there a special reason for.

- The setup is that we are in negotiations for 12 hours in total, and we use most of our ammunition on the green. It is true that we get some concessions, and then we are offered two ministerial positions, he says.

- But I sit with the feeling that I have no influence on this. I don't get the opportunity to drive radical politics through.

It was after calling around to various people in the party that he decided to say no to a seat at the negotiating table ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/radikale-er-ude-af-regeringsforhandlinger-jeg-tror-vi-kan-goere-en-stoerre-forskel ).

- It is the hardest decision I have ever made in my life. I have sat a month as party leader, so I have not set myself solidly in the chair

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'I was a worse leader back then'

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When Mette Frederiksen called for a parliamentary election again in 2022, it was not written in stone that Martin Lidegaard suddenly had to sit at the negotiating table. For he was not the leader of Radical Left at that time.

But after a bad election for the party, which went from 16 to seven seats, the then leader of the party, Sofie Carsten Nielsen, ended up resigning ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/sofie-carsten-nielsen-gaar-af ). For according to herself, the personal votes showed that there was no trust in her.

This placed Martin Lidegaard, who was previously second in command, at the head of the party as the new political leader. Two days after the election day and in the middle of government negotiations.

Even though it was a hard decision for him to say no to sitting at the negotiating table, it is not a decision he regrets. For even though he and the party today stand 'a completely different place than then', he still comes to the same conclusion.

- Maybe I just saw what this government was. And wanted. Now there is a very large majority in the population that has seen it. There has been no change. The green transformation has come to a complete standstill, and I had no power to change it.

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Visible radical fingerprints

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But now it's election year, the latest by October 31st this year there will be a parliamentary election in Denmark. And Martin Lidegaard is this time ready for Radical Left to have power.

What is the success criterion for you in relation to the next election? To come closer to power?

- Yes, of course. You can't be a politician if you don't go after power, and therefore it also bothers me that we don't have it in the amount we should have.

For him, there is a clear thing that he and Radical Left should be measured on after a year:

- I should be measured on whether we are in government with such visible radical fingerprints on the green and on education, that everyone can understand that we are there.

Could you see yourself in reality being in a government with the right-wing?

- I can't see myself in a government with the Danish People's Party. It's a bit too wild, what's coming out of it at the moment, for me to think that one can govern Denmark on that. But as a starting point, I will not exclude anything.

Who would you most like to have as prime minister, if you can choose? Other than yourself?

- The same answer.

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