The movement has approximately 3,500 personal members, as well as collective members such as political parties, NGOs and trade unions (mostly local branches). The individual members are organised in about 100 local branches.[3]
The People's Movement against the EU is a cross-party movement. It does not regard itself a political party and claims to be non-affiliated to the traditional left/right-scale, hence it does not contest national parliamentary or local elections. Its traditional base is found among left-wingers and trade union members, but there are also non-partisans and non-socialist members, e.g., from the Social Liberal Party, the Social Democrats, the Conservative Party, the Green Party and the small Georgist liberal Justice Party. The movement aims at a cooperation with other political forces, although it has distanced itself from the right-wing eurosceptical Danish People's Party.
The term People's Movement (another possible translation is Popular Movement) is common in Denmark and does not hint at socialism, but rather means 'broad movement for a common cause'. Several Danish parties label themselves people's parties (folkeparti).
European Parliament
In the 2004 election, it gained 5.2% of the national vote, electing one MEP. It has been represented in the European Parliament since 1979 when direct elections were introduced. In every election since 1994, it has been part of an electoral coalition with the euro-scepticJune Movement.
Car showing People's Movement against the EU election sticker
Until 2002, they were part of the EDD group in the European Parliament, but then switched to being associate members of the GUE-NGL group. Ole Krarup stated that the other Danish subgroup of EDD, Jens-Peter Bonde from the June Movement, increasingly aimed at "democratising" or "improving" the EU, according to Krarup making it impossible for the People's Movement to pursue their policies within the group. Krarup claimed that the group membership was a primarily technical matter, and that only the GUE-NGL group could secure full political autonomy of the People's Movement. He stated that the movement's political cross-spectrum position was not affected.[5]
At the 2019 election, The People's Movement lost their single seat, and for the first time since 1979, they are not represented in the parliament. The loss was widely regarded as caused by the Red-Green Alliance, who traditionally have supported the party, but decided to contest the election for the first time, and won a single seat. Incumbent MEP Rina Ronja Kari reacted by saying that the movement would live on, and that "the EU-opposition is not dead".[6][7]Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, formerly of the People's Movement was elected in North West England from the Brexit Party.[8] In October 2019 the office as chairman was established, and in November Susanna Dyre-Greensite was elected to the post.[9]
^ ab"EU elections: Danish centrists perform strongly as nationalists dealt huge defeat". thelocal.dk. 27 May 2019. Meanwhile, the far-left People's Movement Against the EU (Folkebevægelsen mod EU), which has consistently held a seat in previous elections, also saw its vote share more than halved, from 8.1 percent to 3.7 percent, and loses its spot in the parliament.
