Wealth tax pledge stirs equality debate ahead of Danish election

COPENHAGEN, March 18 - The wealth tax on which Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is campaigning ahead of a March 24 election may appear modest: a 0.5% levy set at such a high threshold that barely 20,000 Danes - one in 300 residents - will pay it. Read more at straitstimes.com.

COPENHAGEN, March 18 - The wealth tax on which Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is campaigning ahead of a March 24 election may appear modest: a 0.5% levy set at such a high threshold that barely 20,000 Danes - one in 300 residents - will pay it.

But if the intent was to trigger a divisive, nationwide debate about equality and wealth in the small northern European country that could help the social democrat emerge as leader of a new left-leaning alliance, it may be doing its job.

According to political analyst Noa Redington, the proposal reflects a broader pivot by Frederiksen and her Social Democratic Party, which has lost left-leaning voters after going into coalition with the centre-right and introducing tough asylum reforms.

"'We still remember that we come from the left, that in our heart, we are red'," he said of the signal sent out by a tax aimed at raising some $1 billion to fund school reforms allowing for smaller class sizes.

EUROPE'S LATEST RIFT OVER EQUALITY AND GROWTH

Variants of taxes on the assets of the rich have in recent months been championed by left-leaning politicians in France, Italy, Britain, Switzerland, New York and elsewhere as they seek to address anger at inequality and to rally their voter bases.