Enacting The Popular Front Policy
Larsen and the Communist Party complied with the orders from Moscow and began working for the popular front policy. In March 1938 following Adolf Hitler’s takeover of Austria in the Anschluss Larsen held a speech in which he used a more patriotic rhetoric than before and warned that Denmark could suffer the same fate. After the speech the communists urged the Social Democrats and the Social Liberal Party to join the communists in a popular front. In a letter to the Social Democratic leader and prime minister Thorvald Stauning Larsen promised “the most unconditional and loyal support”.
The new party line culminated on the 1938 party congress where Larsen held one of his most important speeches. He declared that the communist party was both a Danish and a democratic party and put great emphasis on his party’s wishes for unity in the labour movement.
The popular front policy won supporters outside traditional communist constituencies and since the communists used the charismatic Larsen to personify their policies he became increasingly popular. However the Social Democrats refused to cooperate with the communists.
In spite of the popularity of Larsen and the popular front voter support for the party was small. Although the communists got 40,983 votes in the 1939 election and went from two to three seats in parliament the increase was much smaller than they had hoped for which was a great disappointment to Larsen. The communists were further disappointed by the 1939 constitutional referendum where they had campaigned in favour of the new constitution which was not passed.
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