EU RO P E A N T R A DE U N I O N D I A LOGU E TRADE UNIONS AND RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN EUROPE Country Study Denmark Susi Meret and Andreas Beyer Gregersen January 2023 INTRODUCTION At a meeting held in June 2021, the European Trade Union Confederation(ETUC) launched a roadmap for the trade unions with the explicit aim of building responses to the rise of the far-right. The document begins with these words: Trade unions and the far-right are opposites. Not only because of trade unions’ history and proud tra­dition of opposing the far-right in past, but because of what trade unions stand for today. Trade unions, above all else, believe in solidarity: we seek better lives, social justice and opportunity, for all working people. We stand for unity over division. The statement is followed by a list of fifteen concrete actions that aim to combat the spread of populism and far-right positions within trade unions and so­ciety. The strategies include the mapping of the far­right at the workplace and in the public opinion; the incentivizing of internal communication and train­ing, education, networking activities; and the pro­motion of alliance building and mutual learning. Concern about the growing electoral support for the far right in recent European elections was reiter­ated by ETUC president Laurent Berger, who warned: Without more dialogue between institutions, trade unions, and civil society, Europe will see chaos and the rise of the far-right, Adding to these words that: […] Hungary, Poland, Italy, or even Sweden. The far­right comes out on top every time in elections,[al­though] Europe has never enjoyed freedom, equality and fraternity in extremist regimes Labour unions have over the past decades experienced the pressure of hyper-globalisation and de-industriali­sation processes, the effects of economic and financial crises, the constant decline in party and union mem­bership(Lehndorff/Dribbusch/Schulten 2018) and the rising electoral support for the radical right among workers(see Rydgren 2013; Salo/Rydgren 2021; Oesch/ Rennwald 2018). The growing disaffection of the work­ing class with labour union organisations and their general decline in influence are today highlighted by the scholarly literature in relation to a twofold trans­formation. On the one side, there has been a change in voters’ political identification and voting preferences, particularly in terms of class-based alignment and support(Kitschelt 1994). On the other side, the role played by trade unions in their negotiations and bar­gaining strategies has narrowed and become more limited by sector(Dancygier/Walter 2015). On the top of these transformations, the multiple global crises that followed the 2008 Great Recession have rein­forced workers’ belief that uncertainty and risk are now permanent. National as well as transnational cy­cles of protests and mobilisations have responded to 1