The Russian invasion of Ukraine pushed Denmark to join the European defense policy from which he himself excluded after his rejection of the Maastricht Treaty. Interviewed Wednesday on the subject by referendum, the Danes voted overwhelmingly for.
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This is another unexpected consequence of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. A little more than three months after the start of the war, 66.9 % of the Danes voted on Wednesday, June 1, to suspend the derogation negotiated by Copenhagen thirty years ago, after the rejection of the Maastricht Treaty. From their country from European cooperation in the fields of security and defense from their country.
“When totalitarianism strikes the door of Europe, and it is again war on our continent, we cannot remain neutral,” reacted the Social Democratic Prime Minister puts Frederiksen, who said his “joy” and his “pride” to see Denmark “take responsibility”. “We show that when Putin invades a free country and threatens stability in Europe, we get closer to each other,” she added.
With this vote, added the president of the Liberal Party, Jakob Ellemann-Jeansen, “we send a clear signal to Putin and despots like him: when you threaten freedom, the free world gathers and armed. When you try to divide us, we take a step forward together and we vot “yes” “. To Europeans, the opposition leader assured that they could “count on Denmark when necessary”.
In Brussels, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen “praised the strong message of commitment to [the] common security sent (…) by the Danish people”. For his part, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, mentioned “a historical choice” and assured that “this decision will benefit Europe and will return the EU and the Danish people safer and stronger.”
A country traditionally Eurosceptic
At the end of a dull campaign, having had trouble mobilizing, the result of the vote is exceptional in more than one way. First, it is the biggest victory of the “yes” during a referendum on the European Union, in a country traditionally Eurosceptic. We have to go back in 1972 and to the vote on the country’s membership in European communities, to observe such a tidal wave: at the time, 63.4 % of the Danes had voted “yes”.
It is also the first time that the Danes have given up one of the four derogations, negotiated in 1992, having allowed the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty, a year later. In 2000, they rejected the single currency and in 2015, they opposed European cooperation in the field of justice and domestic affairs, each time for fear of seeing their sovereignty weakened.
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