New Danish party `The Alternative´ wants to change politics

It’s taken Alternativet (The Alternative) a year to get the signatures required to run. Now the party can focus on forming their party platform and making themselves known, according to their education spokesman in an interview with the University Post.

According to the latest polls, the party will get the votes necessary to even get into parliament.

”Educate everyone as entrepreneurs, to not be job takers but to be job creators. Take the students seriously, because it’s not a system we’re educating, it’s individuals,” Rasmus Nordqvist, education spokesperson for The Alternative, explains the party’s platform.

More flexibility for students

For creative and entrepreneurial thinking, The Alternative believes that an individualized mentality is necessary.

“Create an educational system that makes sense for the way students want to take their career, or more importantly, their life. It should be possible to go to different institutions at the same time, and while it’s still easier today than 10 years ago, we could still make it a lot easier,” explains Nordqvist.

The Alternative stresses community involvement and hosts political laboratories.

”Of course we have a lot of students, but we also have a lot of senior citizens and working adults,” he says, talking about the party’s bottom-up approach.

‘Alternative’ for everyone

In a recent laboratory to create a new cultural policy, for example, over 700 participants attended to share knowledge and ideas.

”At the last laboratory we had, the youngest were 17 and the oldest were 72, and something great happens when we have all these different subgroups together,” Nordqvist says.

Dimensioning, or the plan to cut study spaces in Danish universities for specific study programs, has been the heated topic of debate at universities in recent years.

Wants ‘open’ ministry

The dimensioning policy works against flexibility, and it is difficult to argue where you should cut and why, he says.

”We cannot calculate from the last ten years what is needed in the future. Students starting today are better at looking into the future and seeing what we need, than some politicians,” explains Nordqvist.

The Alternative suggests creating an open ministry, where citizens can make themselves heard about problems such as dimensioning, and proposals that gain 50,000 signatures will need to be added to the agenda and discussed by parliament.

See the party platform of Alternativet (In Danish) here. See more about the party in the fact box upper right.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

Like us on Facebook for features, guides and tips on upcoming events. Follow us on Twitter for links to other Copenhagen academia news stories. Sign up for the University Post weekly newsletter here, and then follow the University Post on Instagram here.