Source: WION
Source: IMDB
The scriptwriter of the hit series “Borgen” believes the show’s latest season’s core theme – the darker side of power – was inspired by Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has been chastised for centralising authority.
The subject has resurfaced ahead of the forthcoming election, in which Danes will vote on Frederiksen’s leadership amid three turbulent years marked by a pandemic, war, and economic turmoil.
Adam Price, a screenwriter and popular Danish TV chef, has received international praise for his work on “Borgen,” which returned for its fourth season this year, depicting the adventures of veteran politician Birgitte Nyborg, played by Sidse Babett Knudsen.
The show, which is notably popular among Britons who enjoy the Nordic Noir genre, has frequently perplexed Danes with its ability to predict political developments in Denmark, including the election of the country’s first female prime minister.
“We have a premise for Borgen… Can you hold power while being loyal to yourself?” Price told in a Copenhagen interview.
Nyborg turned into a darker figure focused on clinging to power in the fourth season, which aired in February, striking comparisons with Frederiksen, who has centralised authority around her office.
“Naturally, we are also motivated by features in our current Prime Minister’s character,” Price said, adding that Nyborg’s character was affected by many other present and former political figures.
Critics blame Frederiksen’s top-down leadership for the hasty and illegal order to slaughter all mink in the country during the coronavirus outbreak, a scandal that could jeopardise her prospects of re-election.
Price did not know whether Birgitte Nyborg would return for a fifth season, but a prospective new series may take her to Brussels and the European Union’s power centre.
“I’m sure a lot of people in the UK would welcome it,” Price remarked, “especially if we weren’t so friendly towards Brussels.”
About Borgen
Borgen, a Danish political drama, premiered in 2010. It quickly became evident that its creator, Adam Price, possessed an incredible capacity to forecast and, at times, influence political events in the real Christiansborg Palace, Denmark’s parliament building.
Borgen began with the election of centrist politician Birgitte Nyborg as Denmark’s first female prime minister. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a Social Democrat, “repeated” this accomplishment a year later in real life.
It was sometimes difficult to differentiate fiction from political reporting when it aired in the Sunday primetime slot right before the news. Episodes addressed subjects such as prostitution and industrialised pig farming, which became heated topics in politics and the press.
Almost ten years after the third series concluded, the drama returns for a fourth season. Borgen: Power & Glory portrays a middle-aged Nyborg, a hardworking and principled foreign affairs minister in a coalition government led by Prime Minister and Labour leader Signe Kragh.
Kragh’s penchant for candid Instagram photos of food and sporting events will remind Danish viewers of current Social Democrat Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Price has kept some of his forecasting abilities.
In the first episode, Nyborg describes a Russian tycoon being sanctioned for his role in the current invasion of Ukraine. Borgen is most likely embroiled in a geopolitical present, which was most likely written with the 2014 annexation of Crimea in mind. Russia invaded Ukraine a week after it aired in Denmark.
The new season’s main plot revolves around the discovery of oil in Greenland. When global superpowers Russia, China, and the United States strive to impose themselves in the Arctic, the experienced Nyborg correctly predicts trouble.
Economic concerns threaten to trump her party’s environmental values, and the already strained relationship between Greenland and Denmark threatens to erupt into a fierce battle over political control and oil earnings.
Borgen’s representation of the Arctic’s increasingly harsh geopolitical realities is one of its highlights. Denmark and Greenland are both minor players who rely on stronger nations.
It also portrays the disparate effects of climate change. While oil extraction by colonial powers has been driving climate change for millennia, Indigenous peoples such as the Greenlandic Inuit are seeing the effects on their delicate ecosystems. This reality reopens old scars in the Danish realm, which encompasses Greenland’s former colonies and current dependencies.
Click here to watch the trailer:
