ONE OUT OF EVERY TWO NEW-DANES WILL VOTE FOR NEW PARTY WITH ETHNIC PROFILE

Boost to the Minority Party: New investigation to be published today shows that nearly one half of all New-Danes would vote today for a new party whose primary purpose is to protect the interests of refugees and immigrants

The Institute Catint's quarterly report, "Integration status, 2. quarter 2000" published today, contains questions to 995 New-Danes. One of the questions reads as follows:

There has been a certain amount of talk regarding the establishment of a new political party in Denmark with the primary purpose of protecting the interests of refugees and immigrants - would you vote for this party if there was a general election tomorrow (only New-Danes with the right to vote are included)?

YES: 47%. NO: 27%. DON'T KNOW: 23%. NO ANSWER: 3%

The Minority Party's foreman, Rune Engelbreth Larsen comments: "The investigation confirms that New-Danes do not feel that there is any place for them in the established political parties - a humanistic cultural showdown at grassroots level is necessary to turn the tide of discrimination."

Rune Engelbreth Larsen continues: "The established parties have either opted for a hard-nosed discriminatory policy in line with the right wing, which in this context includes everyone from the Social-Democratic Party and the Social Liberal Party to the extremists in the Progress Party and the Danish People's Party - or else they have not been sufficiently sensitive to the demands of New-Danes for equal rights, not just in name, but also in fact."

1) Abolish restrictions on family unification for marriage partners under the age of 25 years

2) Absolute freedom for Muslim women to were headscarves in the business community

3) Stop the forceful removal of children with ethnic backgrounds to foster-families without ethnic backgrounds

4) Abolish the imprisonment of asylum seekers without ID

5) Citizenship for all who have been resident in Denmark for a period of three years or more

6) Full rights of instruction in one's own mother tongue as well as in Danish

Abolish restriction on ethnic children and youths from speaking their own mother tongue in institutions

7) The same punishment for the same crime

8) Integration towards a multicultural Denmark

9) The Minority Party, although placing a high priority on the problems of New-Danes, cannot be regarded solely as an immigrant party. We will also strive to unite other marginalised people and minorities in mutual understanding, freedom of diversity, and a joint cultural showdown, from immigrants and refugees, to the elderly and sick, the poor and the disenfranchised.

THE MINORITY PARTY