He states this in a post on social media and confirms the switch to Nordjyske.
– I have always believed in and fought for cooperation across the middle. We got that with this government and that’s what I want to be a part of, says Christian Friis Bach in an interview with Nordjyske.
Christian Friis Bach has never hidden the fact that he would like to be part of the current government, and this is now the reason why he is changing parties.
– It has cost many sleepless nights and many thoughts here over the summer. I have been in Radikale Venstre for 40 years, so it is not an easy decision, but I think it is the right government we have got and I want to fight for that, he says.
After the general election in 2022, Christian Friis Bach, together with party leader Martin Lidegaard and Samira Nawa, helped to negotiate a government basis in place.
A government that Radikale Venstre refused to participate in at the 11th hour.
– It was five intense weeks of negotiations. It is the finest thing I have experienced in Danish politics. The government is based on a dignified conversation across the middle – even if it is different parties. This is precisely what I have always believed in – and worked for – as it is the way forward in politics, says Christian Friis Bach.
– I want to be a part of that, and I have had good meetings with Troels Lund Poulsen and Stephanie Lose, who stand for the classic Left, which I am also surrounded by and feel close to, he says.
Don’t let the voters down
In the interview with Nordjyske, Christian Friis Bach emphasizes that he is not changing for personal gain.
– I come from a safe constituency in Hjørring, where I would probably be sure of re-election. Now my future is uncertain, he says.
He says that he has not been promised posts, mayorships or anything else in the Liberal Party, with whom he has had meetings in the past few weeks.
– I haven’t even decided whether I will stand at the next election. It is also not my motivation for switching, he says, and points out himself that the Liberals are facing a decline in opinion polls.
In the election on 1 November 2022, Radikale Venstre received 8,905 votes in North Jutland’s Storkreds. Which was enough to hold onto one mandate.
Christian Friis Bach received 1489 personal votes.
He doesn’t feel like he’s stealing radical votes – or feeling like he’s letting down those who voted for him personally
– I voted for a government across the middle. I wanted to work for climate and nature as well as education and learning, and I will continue to work for that. I have worked with North Jutland special cases in the Folketing, and I will continue to do so, so I do not think that I have failed those who voted for me or Radikale Venstre, he says to Nordjutske.
– I have given so much to the party over 40 years. The fact that I am now using the mandate to pursue what I was elected for is not a failure, he says.
Feels like politics as a North Jutland
Christian Friis Bach was appointed as development minister in 2011 in Helle Thorning-Schmidt’s first government.
He resigned as Development Minister in November 2013 because he had given incorrect information to the Folketing in the GGGI case.
In 2014, Christian Friis Bach also left the Danish Parliament to become Under-Secretary-General of the UN.
He made a surprising comeback in Danish politics when, in 2021, he was persuaded to run for Radikale Venstre in the Hjørring constituency.
He then told Nordjuyske that he had been contacted by several local associations, but he could not say no to the Hjørring district.
– My great-great-grandfather was a member of parliament for the Liberal Party – elected in the Frederikshavn district. And the family farm – Kringelholt – where my mother was born and raised, is located between Frederikshavn and Hjørring, but in the Hjørring constituency, so it really appealed when I was contacted by the Hjørring constituency. If I were to return to politics, it would have to be here, he said.
It looks like an open invitation to the Liberals in Frederikhavn or Hjørring if they would like a candidate for the next election?
– I have not made up my mind whether I will stand at all at the next election. But politically, I feel myself to be from North Jutland, says Christian Friis Bach.
The Liberals get four mandates
With Christian Friis Bach’s switch to the Liberal Party, no radical member of parliament has been elected in North Jutland.
There is otherwise a long tradition for that.
Christian Friis Bach took over the Hjørring circle from Marianne Jelved when she announced in 2021 that she would only stop after more than 30 years at Christiansborg.
Before that, she managed to be elected nine times since 1990 as a political leader of Radikal Venstre, a minister for many years and the party’s nestor.
At the last election with Jelved on the ballot – in 2019 – 18,605 North Jutland voters voted radical.
In the election on November 1, 2022 – the first without Marianne Jelved as a vote-getter – Radikale Venstre in North Jutland ended with 8,905 crosses, corresponding to a modest 2.4 percent.
The 2.4 percent was just enough to stick to the radical mandate. And with 250 more personal votes than party colleague Daniel Nyboe Andersen, the mandate went to Christian Friis Bach.
While the Radical Liberals no longer have a member of parliament elected in North Jutland, the Liberals now have four. In addition to Christian Friis Bach, it is Minister for Digitization and Minister for Equality Marie Bjerre, Political Speaker Torsten Schack Pedersen and Preben Bang Henriksen.
2024-08-05 04:04:10
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