Party: Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokratiet)
Candidate for: Local council: Lolland Municipality
Summer’s story
Summer Juul Andersen’s pride in Lolland shines through when she speaks. “We have a diamond down here that people don’t tend to see because we can be overshadowed by the big cities,” she says. Now, as a candidate in next month’s local elections, she wants to use her platform to raise the island’s profile, amongst many other things.
Lolland is Denmark’s 4th biggest island, located south of Zealand. The island, which has a population of 40,000, has undergone significant changes over the past few years since construction began on the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link. When completed in 2029, this will create a direct road and rail connection between Denmark and Germany. The project has brought thousands of internationals to the area. In 2021, Lolland International School, the country’s first public school for internationals, opened, attracting a great deal of media attention. All of this has fundamentally changed Lolland’s culture, bringing many opportunities but also some challenges.
Back in 2019, when Summer and her family first moved to Lolland from Houston, Texas, in the US, the island was a very different place. She and her husband, a Dane who was born on Lolland, decided “early on” it would be the perfect place to raise their two daughters. “It’s safer and a better standard of living than the US,” Summer says. “My daughters can be free to do as they wish.”
Initially, Summer faced the same challenges as all internationals in a new country: “We had visited Lolland a lot before, but you never really know a culture until you’re in the situation. Now, the island is very international but when I moved, it wasn’t. There wasn’t a lot of English spoken and I hadn’t learned Danish as well as I thought I had!”
Entering politics
Summer quickly set about immersing herself in the culture and contributing to the local community. A major part of this has been her work with Lolland-Falster International Community, an organisation increasingly vital in a changing area. “In 2021 International Community Lolland Falster was a Facebook page and meet up group,” she says. “I was elected president in 2022 and formed an official association. This helped us build the community with some financial support from some municipal funding. We now have almost 1700 followers on our Facebook page and have several sponsored events throughout the year.” Summer is also an elected member of Lolland Municipality’s Integration Council, working to ensure that all residents—both Danish and international—feel included and able to contribute.
Summer points out the diversity of the international community on the island. This consists not only of employees of the Fehmarn Belt tunnel project and Vestas, the wind turbine manufacturer which has a factory there, but also people from Syria, Bosnia and Kosovo who arrived in the 1990s as refugees of the war. “I think the draw is Lolland is close to the rest of Europe and it’s really a cosy place to live,” she says. “It’s friendly, everyone is quite open and welcoming. We really feel welcome in the area, especially in the city council.”
Politics wasn’t new to Summer: she had been politically involved at grassroots level in the US, first as the president of her college’s Democratic Association and later as a campaigner for local officials. However, she had never thought of running for office in Denmark.
“I really hadn’t considered it but the mayor came to me one day and said, ‘You should run for a seat on the city council,’” Summer says. “I talked it over with my family and thought it could be a great way for me to contribute and help give the many internationals in our community a voice.”
Lolland, unusually for Denmark, already had an international on the council. Now, it has one of the largest representations of international candidates for next month’s elections, with five people standing. “We have four parties represented so there’s quite a good selection for internationals to choose from,” Summer says.
So why the Social Democrats? Whilst she had offers from other parties due to her high profile within the international community, the Social Democrats were the only choice for Summer. “I was always a Democrat in the US,” she says. “I stand for working class families, for volunteering. The party values really align with the values I had in the US. When I came here and researched a little more, I really agreed with their policies.”
It can be hard for internationals to break into politics but Summer has met “nothing but positivity” so far: “I’ve felt very welcomed during my campaign. I think Danes appreciate internationals trying to integrate and give to the community. Denmark has such a huge volunteering spirit so especially here, people really appreciate that we as internationals are making the effort to become more ‘Danish’ whilst keeping our own culture.”
These days, Summer’s Danish doesn’t hold her back in political meetings: “I understand the language fluently so I can take part in debates,” she says. “When I’m doing public speaking I still always have notes but I get by!”
Summer’s campaign
Image credit: Summer Juul Andersen
“The top thing on my list is more and better marketing for Lolland,” Summer says. “We have a lot of great things here that aren’t necessarily known. I want to encourage people to spend local and stay local, and contribute to the local economy. I think if people knew more about what was happening locally, we would have a lot more visitors to the island.”
She gives the example of Nakskov, the island’s largest town, where wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is located: “It’s a good-sized town for the island. It has lots of stores that can’t be found in Maribo [the second largest town], where I live. People will tend to go to Nykøbing on Falster [the neighboring island] but we’ve done quite a bit to re-market Nakskov and make it beautiful, so we now see people going there instead.”
Summer emphasises that supporting the local community “isn’t only about financial support but also sustainability and being more environmentally friendly by reducing travel.” Promoting the community has become a constant occupation for her; she laughs as she talks about how her phone is “constantly in my hand marketing local events online”. She’d like to develop a locally-based app that can do this job, but that’s something for the future.
Summer is also alert to the large number of accompanying spouses coming to Lolland with recent business developments in the area. “I want to help them to work locally,” she says. “We have a lower unemployment rate than the national average but we still have a lot of unemployed people here who could be working. I want to promote the idea to companies that an international CV may look different from a Danish CV but is still of huge value.”
She points out her own experience: “I used to work in the restaurant business and now I’m in finance. I have a Masters degree in business but I have an undergraduate degree in European history. My CV is a mix of different things and convincing employers I’m not over-qualified for jobs can be a challenge. I applied for 186 different positions before I found my current job. Most of my applications were never acknowledged. So I know what it feels like to be in the position of really trying hard to find a job and not being heard.”
Summer has practical plans here: “One thing I would like to see and am working with the Municipality on is setting up job fairs with local employers, where the hiring managers can grow their understanding of what an international CV might look like and the range of qualified candidates they have right here who are available for work.”
Given her volunteer roles, building connections between the international and Danish communities is unsurprisingly very close to Summer’s heart. “I have a lot of passion for integration, sharing cultures together and living together in a multicultural society,” she says. “One of our slogans for the international community here is building bridges across cultures. We want to build that bridge but have it be a two-way street. In 2021 we started with community meals. The longer we’ve been in the area, the more open we see Danes being to us.” A recent women’s event was made up of 50% Danes and 50% internationals. “I’d love to see this happen more,” Summer says. “An International Community event isn’t only for internationals! We’ve had more Danes speaking at our events about how welcoming the community is for internationals and that’s been really popular. Our goal is to show we still have our own culture but we want to also learn Danish language and culture and contribute to society. And I think that’s quite well received when we talk to people about it.”
Final thoughts
Summer’s political campaign is inevitably greatly influenced by her role within the international community association. “I try to keep two separate hats because my International Community role isn’t politically driven but it does help me recognise there is a need for internationalisation and for us to contribute as internationals in the democratic process,” she says. “We are here and there are things that are important to us that we can contribute.”
The key to integration is making a contribution, she feels: “I would say to all internationals – don’t give up and keep trying. In the winter, Danes close their doors and stay inside but just keep trying, smiling and talking to your neighbors. They’ll recognise you’re willing to stay and contribute to society and the country.”
Summer is also passionate about ensuring internationals know their rights in Denmark: “A lot of internationals don’t realise they have a right to vote. Many other countries don’t allow non-citizens to participate in local democracy. This is an excellent thing that Denmark does because we have an impact and we should have. That’s what I try to promote – if you have the ability to be involved, be involved.”
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