A sharp decline in Danish public confidence in the SF party leader by more than half, and this is the explanation…

A new opinion poll conducted by Megafon for TV2 has shown a sharp decline in the level of trust enjoyed by political party leaders in Denmark, with the leader of the Socialist People's Party (SF), Pia Olsen Dyhr, registering the biggest drop among the leaders included in the measurement, according to TV2.

The study showed that only 21 percent of participants chose Pia Olsen as one of the most credible political party leaders, down from 48 percent in the last survey conducted in December. This represents a drop of more than half, or 27 percentage points.

Survey participants were asked to choose three party leaders they considered the most credible. The results come at a time when the leadership of the Socialist People's Party (SF) is facing the fallout from the appointment of Thomas Nystrøm as a special advisor to the party leader, despite his previous dismissal from the same party following allegations of sexual harassment.

Drop from first to seventh place

Since the end of 2022, Danes have consistently chosen Pia Olsen Dær as the most credible political party leader in Megafon's measurements of public trust in politicians.

But the new measurement has dramatically changed this picture, as the 27 percentage point drop has pushed the leader of the Socialist People's Party down to seventh place in the ranking of the most credible party leaders.

Conservative Party leader Mona Juul topped the new list, while Lars Boje Mathiesen, leader of the Borgernes Parti (Citizens' Party), came in last. He is the leader whose party won four parliamentary seats, but he was left alone in parliament representing his party after all the party members left and retained their parliamentary seats as independents.

A political expert speaks of "deep concern" within the party

Hans Redder, political editor at TV 2, believes the measurement results should cause "very deep concern" within the Socialist People's Party.

Reeder said that Pia Olsen-Der's credibility and personal image in front of voters had been one of the party's strongest assets for years, and was perhaps one of the main reasons behind the party's string of good election results.

He added that the picture changed in just a few months, following what he described as a self-inflicted and poorly handled incident, noting that the party leader had suddenly fallen to a very low ranking among party leaders.

Ryder described the scale of the decline as very striking, and said that the impact of the Thomas Nyström affair on the confidence measurement results was not surprising, but he considered that Pia Olsen-Der's fall so quickly and to such a degree represented a development "close to catastrophic" for a party participating in the government.

The issue of appointing a special advisor is at the heart of the decline.

Ryder linked the significant decline in public confidence primarily to the issue of appointing Thomas Nyström as a special advisor in the Ministry of Economics and the Interior, an issue that began last June when SF politician Lotte Kofoed demanded that the party leader apologize for reappointing Nyström as her personal advisor after the elections held in March.

Thomas Nyström had left his position as a senior party advisor in 2020 following allegations of inappropriate conduct and an incident described as sexual abuse or harassment.

The issue continued to generate controversy in the following months, and the way the party leadership handled it became a subject of political and media attention.

The party leader said that circumstances have changed.

About six years after the previous incident, Pia Olsen-Der considered the situation to be different, saying that Nyström had apologized and changed his behavior, according to what TV2 reported in a sequence of her statements regarding the case.

The leader of the Socialist People's Party also refused to apologize to Lotte Kofod over the decision to appoint Nyström, but Nyström decided just a few days later to end his work as a special advisor.

Politiken later revealed that Nyström had worked as an external advisor to the Socialist People’s Party during the period between his dismissal in 2020 and his appointment as a special advisor in 2026, while simultaneously working as an employee of the Danish Nature Conservation Association (Danmarks Naturfredningsforening).

TV2 also reported that they had tried for several months to get answers from the Socialist People's Party and Pia Olsen-Der regarding the issue, but to no avail.

The questions the channel tried to ask included how long Thomas Nyström continued to work with the party after his dismissal in 2020, the nature of the tasks he performed as an external advisor, and the people within the party who were aware of his work in that capacity.

The channel added that the majority of the party's parliamentary group members and Pia Olsen-Der refused to answer questions last Monday when TV2 journalists tried to speak to them in front of the party's parliamentary group room in Christiansborg.

TV 2 also tried to get an interview with Pia Olsen-Der for the article, but she refused to do the interview.

Timeline of Nyström's appointment as an advisor to the SF after his expulsion from the same party

The case began on June 10, 2026, when Pia Olsen appointed Thomas Nyström as her special advisor.

On June 12, Olsen-Der spoke to the press in Allinge on the island of Bornholm, saying that she had not spoken to anyone before making the decision to appoint him, and that she had assessed the matter based on what had happened in 2020, an incident that had occurred about six years prior.

She also said that, in principle, she believes a person should not be permanently barred from returning to professional life because of what happened in the past.

On June 13, Thomas Nyström announced the end of his work as a special advisor following the media uproar that occurred after SF member Lotte Kofod's remarks. On June 16, Pia Olsen-Der said that she would not apologize to Lotte Kofod, whom TV2 described as the aggrieved party in the affair.

Olsen-Der added that if she had known beforehand that the case would lead to so much uproar, criticism and frustration, she would not have appointed the person.

On August 19, the party leader returned to the issue, saying that she did not believe what happened was a result of misjudgment, but rather considered it a mistake.

She also said that the party had practically ended this process, and that the Socialist People's Party was conducting an internal dialogue with Lotte Kofod and with the parties concerned in Frederiksberg, considering that the matter had essentially become an internal process within the party.

A new measure puts the party leader's image under pressure

The new figures reveal the extent of the change in Pia Olsen-Der's standing with the public. After being chosen by 48 percent of participants in the December survey, she now only has the choice of 21 percent in the new survey.

This means a loss of 27 percentage points in the public's choice index for her among the top three most credible party leaders, and a move from an advanced position that had been associated with her for years to seventh place in the current ranking.