“Village idiots” prompt fringe party member to quit

One of only two elected candidates of a party which claims to support Denmark’s fringe areas has left the group, calling its members a bunch of “village idiots”. Poul A Christensen, of the Faellesliste Party, quit his position as a member of the Central Jutland Regional Council after a dramatic meeting of candidates and party supporters.

Christensen was apparently put out when the assembled members took issue with a programme which he had been asked to produce.

“There are some of them in the party I would call village idiots,” Christensen said in a report by Politiken. “But some of them were angry that I was the one to produce the programme – they had a need to mark off their territory. But we tried to do it as a joint thing – and it didn’t work. So things got a bit chaotic. Some of them are village idiots – people who don’t understand what politics is, and how it functions,” he added.

Chairman Leif Hornshoj, who approved the debated programme, is now the party’s only elected member. He said that he does not concur with Christensen’s opinionated stance.

“I don’t recognise his description. The rest of us had a good discussion after he left. So if there are village idiots in the party they must be all 12 who were there,” said Hornshoj.

The Faelleslisten Party is a new group which wants to be the first fringe area political organisation in Parliament. It also seeks to decentralise the country and develop schools, hospitals and more employment in outlying areas of Denmark.