Theresa Scavenius: Jeg opfatter ikke mig selv som politiker

Theresa Scavenius, an independent member of the Danish parliament (Folketinget), does not see herself as a politician. She describes herself as a researcher and a citizen who entered politics out of a sense of civic duty. In a conversation with the host of Ikke Et Ord Om Politik, she lays out a fundamental critique of how the Folketing operates: the political game, party discipline, and closed-door compromises have eroded the quality of lawmaking and alienated citizens. Her solution is to build a new party, the Green Democrats, centered not on a fixed ideological platform but on restoring procedural integrity to democracy itself.

The Researcher Who Became a Citizen-Politician

Scavenius’s self-conception is central to her argument. She does not identify with the tactical maneuvering that dominates Christiansborg. "I perceive myself as, first of all, a researcher. It's like my métier," she says, adding that she also views herself as "a citizen who lives in that society, who just thinks about how we think the environment and climate policy is." This dual identity makes her a poor fit for traditional party structures. She struggles not with cooperation itself, but with "party discipline, where you are forced to vote in a certain way, or have to do something, because there are some tactical bills in relation to a minister." For Scavenius, the problem is compromising on funda