SLAGELSE: A buzz of excitement goes through the crowd as the head of Denmark's populist, anti-immigration party sweeps into the square, shaking hands and assuring supporters Thursday's vote will not spell the end to her decade of influence.
Pia Kjaersgaard, the 64-year-old head of the Danish People's Party (DPP), takes her time making the rounds, stopping to chat with many of the around 100 supporters who have gathered in the windswept small town of Slagelse, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Copenhagen.
"I understand completely... This is what I've been saying all along," she says after listening wrinkle-browed to one voter's concerns about of dissipating pensions, and again on hearing about unemployment worries.
Near a large poster of her own smiling face, with glasses and cropped blond hair, Kjaersgaard kneels down to speak to a severely handicapped man in a wheelchair, spending long minutes deciphering his slurred message: "You're the best for Denmark!"
Others crane their necks, eager to catch a glimpse of the youthful and charismatic grandmother who co-founded the DPP in 1995 and who has largely dictated Denmark's immigration policies for the past decade.
"I love Pia!" enthuses Erkki Trige, 76, echoing the pins worn by many supporters, most of whom, like him, are pensioners.
Putting down the cup of free coffee passed out by campaign workers, he insists Kjaersgaard is "Denmark's very best politician," adding he supports DPP because after living in "Arab countries" for three years he realised "we can't live side-by-side with such people."
With around 12 percent of voter support, the party has since 2001 been a key parliamentary ally of the minority centre-right government and has wielded enormous influence especially in pushing Denmark to adopt among the most draconian immigration policies in Europe.
But polls have consistently suggested that the centre-left opposition alliance, which is much less inclined to cooperate with the DPP, will win Thursday's elections.
That is a fear Kjaersgaard brushes aside, telling AFP: "I am convinced the DPP will do well."
"We will still have influence," she says, insisting that even if the opposition wins, her party will have leverage to push through several issues.
In addition to maintaining strict immigration laws and pushing ahead with controversial permanent customs controls at Danish borders, her party has presented an EU-skeptic platform and courted the elderly with promises of subsidy hikes and even free handouts of pepper spray for self-defence.
Jenette Fagerberg, 30, who has skipped her adult vocational school to see Kjaersgaard, says she thinks Denmark needs a change of government. But she hopes the DPP can cooperate with a new government "especially to tighten immigration further."
Not everyone agrees.
Fatih Sen, a 23-year-old born in Denmark to Turkish parents, and a group of friends crowd in to see Kjaersgaard.
Wearing an "I heart Pia" pin he jumps over and asks if she will pose for a picture with him.
She cheerfully agrees, although admonishes him to speak with his friends in Danish.
He poses with a lifted fist with his thumb squeezed between the index and middle fingers: "A sign of freedom," he says.
Later though, he tells AFP the gesture in Turkey is equivalent to giving someone the finger.
"It's a very racist party. I don't respect them," he says, explaining his action.
"They talk about freedom, but then criticise my wife for wearing a headscarf.
"That's not freedom," he says.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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