The Danish euro: constructing a monetary oxymoron in the Danish euro debate

Abstract

In this article, I analyse the political debate leading up to the Danish euro referendum in 2000. I show how the euro-positive government unintentionally reinforced the arguments of the euro-sceptics by framing the euro as something belonging to the nation-state. I argue that this paradoxical campaign strategy stems from the Danish conceptualisation of nation and state and from the close connection between national currencies and feelings of community and citizenship more general. The analysis confirms the suggestion made by Gilbert that new monetary organisation, such as European Monetary Union, potentially reconfigures the feelings of belonging, popular sovereignty and social welfare rights.

Keywords:

• national currencies
• Denmark
• euro
• euro-debate
• nation
• state
• money
• currency

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ellen Mølgaard, Alfred Reckendrees and Mads Mordhorst (all from the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School) for their many comments and suggestions to this paper. I also need to thank Lave K. Borch from Europabevægelsen mod EU for letting me use their archive of campaign materials. Finally, I am grateful for the criticism and feedback I received from the journal's four anonymous reviewers.

Notes on contributor

Anders Ravn Sørensen is PhD student at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School. He works on the connection between monetary affairs, nationalism and national identity and has published on European monetary history, central banking and banknote iconography.

Notes

1. Not all Danish historians agree on this temporal distinction between patriotism and nationalism. Feldbæk (1991, 1996) argues for the existence of a distinct Danish national identity that preceded the early modern period. For a comprehensive review of Danish historians' attempts to date the Danish nation, see Brincker (2009).

2. See Bruner (2005, 2011) for a comprehensive review on rhetorical analysis and national identity construction, and the apparent gap between U.S. scholars of rhetoric and European studies of national identity.

3. One year earlier, in 1999, Danish social democratic Prime Minister Poul Nyrup had excluded the DPP from budget negotiations, arguing that they would ‘never become housebroken’ and that the party's ‘ethical principals’ would never be accepted in a Danish context (Ritzau, 1999).

4. All quotes from Danish sources are translated by the author.