Even more Rasmussen

It appears that Danish Prime Minister Andres Fogh Rasmussen will hang on to his position, according to exit polls.

Yet to retain a parliamentary majority he has to somehow reconcile the government's current partner, the Danish People's Party, which is led by Pia Kjaersgaard and whom many suspect of not liking immigrants enough, and the New Alliance, whose leader is named Naser Khader.

It seems an impossible task, but much like the political situation in Estonia and, indeed around the Baltic Sea, it seems the parties there are set in a constellation that will be hard to budge.

Rasmussen's "less lenient on accepting refugees, less tolerant of raising taxes" stance won him the wrath of the rather loud Danish left wing but catapulted him to office in 2001. I was held up on the Radhuspladsen in central Copenhagen that autumn by a very concerned protester who was worried about Rasmussen's platform.

The only problem was that I couldn't quite figure out who this Rasmussen was. You see, Anders Fogh Rasmussen's predecessor was named Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. And it took awhile for the fact to sink in that there were actually two guys running against each other with the same last name.

That Rasmussen had been in office since 1993. If the current Rasmussen stays in office for another four years, that will be 18 blissful years of Rasmussen for Denmark. Ah, Denmark. The more things change, the more they stay the same.