In the spotlight: Lars Løkke Rasmussen.Image: keystone
In the Danish election campaign there is a debate about a new wealth tax – and about the alleged migration of the rich to the Alps.
Mar 24, 2026, 7:45 a.mMar 24, 2026, 7:45 a.m
Niels Anner, Copenhagen / ch media
As soon as the election campaign got underway, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke had a nice story ready: A large number of rich Norwegians who had fled the wealth taxes of their Scandinavian homeland had settled in a chic Swiss Alpine village. The menu there, in the local Swiss Michelin restaurant, is therefore in Norwegian.
The story caused a stir because Switzerland is right in the middle of the Danish election campaign. The village in the Alps does not exist, as journalists found out, and Løkke had to admit that he had exaggerated the matter a bit – but the anecdote still hit the mark. It illustrates how heatedly Denmark is arguing about a new wealth tax ahead of Tuesday’s parliamentary and government elections.
Looking at Davos: According to the Danish Foreign Minister, menus in Norwegian should be distributed in the Swiss Alps.Image: KEYSTONE
The election campaign is also about migration policy, the cost of living and school. But essentially it’s about a choice of direction for the Social Democratic head of government Mette Frederiksen. According to polls, her party will suffer losses, but the 48-year-old should still be able to win a third term in office – the only question is with whom.
Vestas CEO threatens to move away
A close result is expected: either she can govern, as before, with a broad coalition with bourgeois parties – or form a new left-wing government. But to do this, the comrade, who is on the right-wing fringe of her party and is also attracting attention abroad with her tough immigration and asylum policies, has to win back left-wing voters. For example, with social promises and the fight against growing inequality – with a wealth tax.
Heading for a third term: Mette Frederiksen.Image: keystone
In the future, according to the wishes of the Social Democrats, assets worth the equivalent of more than three million francs should be taxed at 0.5 percent. Around 20,000 people would be affected. “We want to skim off the peak of inequality that is increasingly unbalancing Denmark,” explained Frederiksen. She wants to use the additional tax revenue to strengthen schools.
Citizens and business people, including the chairman of the board of directors of the shipping company Mærsk and the head of Lego, are storming against the project. They argue that capital could migrate, investments could fail and companies could be weakened. Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen, who heads one of the world’s largest wind power companies, has already threatened to leave the country. Troels Lund Poulsen, the Liberal president who leads the bourgeois bloc, strongly warns that Frederiksen’s policies will “make Denmark poorer.”
Milder effects than in Norway
The opponents, like Foreign Minister Løkke, who belongs to the centrist Moderaterne party, repeatedly use Norway as a threatening backdrop – and thus Switzerland. The neighboring country to the north increased its wealth tax in 2022, which drove several hundred wealthy people abroad – dozens of them to Switzerland.
However, data also shows that Norwegian wealth tax revenues have increased despite migration, and experts point out that the Danish model would be more moderate and affect fewer people.
Danish economist Henrik Kleven, who teaches at Princeton University in the US, said studies show that migration due to wealth taxes is often low. On the other hand, there are longer-term effects because wealthy people react with other means to optimize their tax burden. That is why the income is likely to be significantly lower than the Social Democrats calculated.