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Sidse Babett Knudsen in »Borgen«: No drug is as destructive as power
Photo: Mike Colloffel
A little lesson in television history: from 2010 to 2013, the greatest politician of the international series age was Birgitte Nyborg, the woman who, as chairwoman of a small left-liberal party, made it to the first female prime minister of her country - and thus this country, Denmark - without any actual majority in parliament , probably for the first time since »Hamlet« put »on the political map«.
That's what Shakespeare would have said.
Or was it someone else?
Anyway, all fiction.
The fact is, however, that Nyborg's achievement is no less significant, because a not so small part of the German population likes nothing better than to swap their own rainy weather for Denmark's rainy weather - but has never been interested in Danish domestic politics Has.
So if you know the name of the current real Danish Prime Minister at this point without having googled it, please write to the author of the text.
Maybe we'll raffle off a pack of liquorice among all the right answers.
The fact that the »Borgen« series became a worldwide success was hardly due to Danish sweets, not to the Danish weather and also not to the frequently shown Danish seat of government Copenhagen, the world capital of good taste and cycle paths.
And certainly not because of the endearing Danish language, with its many »öntskults« and »taks«, which can be heard in the original version.
It was because of the main character of the series, Birgitte Nyborg herself.
Nyborg, played by Sidse Babett Knudsen, was the dream politician: articulate, quick-witted, charismatic, with a clear value system, and yes, she was well dressed too.
When the first season of »Borgen« first ran on Danish television in 2010 and then in a number of other countries in the years that followed, Nyborg stood for the promise of a new beginning, for a break with tradition that had not yet taken place in reality would have.
Surprisingly up to date
The fact that a woman ruled with Nyborg was unusual enough in 2010, she was also quite young for a female prime minister at her early forties.
Her husband Phillip stayed at home and looked after the children.
Eventually, Nyborg herself took some time off because her daughter Laura was in a crisis.
At a time when the patterns of behavior for women in power in the real world were still set by older, armored ladies like Margaret Thatcher or Angela Merkel, that was all – how do they say in politics?
– »visionary«.
This also applied to the »Borgen« series itself, which had already been shot before the Netflix versions of »House of Cards« or »The Crown« even started and shaped modern series television.
"Borrowing" was a promise of a new, slightly better time, despite all the conflicts, all the drama and defeats.
But we are still waiting for better times – or are we?
It was definitely obvious that someone would come up with the idea of reviving the series at some point.
The new fourth season of Borgen, which Danish television has now co-produced with Netflix after a nine-year hiatus, is quite timely.
The Ukraine war and an oligarch play a role, it's about spheres of influence and global conflicts.
What is surprising, however, is how much Nyborg has gotten on the defensive.
Without any major scruples
She hasn't been prime minister for a long time.
As foreign minister, she has to submit to another, younger woman of all people, the social democrat Signe Kragh (Johanne Louise Schmidt), who is now in charge of the government.
But submitting is quite difficult for Nyborg, who led her country, her party and actually her family with obvious pleasure.
Your former magic seems gone.
Her marriage and her family are broken;
she herself is aging, at 53 she is clearly suffering from the consequences of menopause, sometimes she breaks out in a sweat, sometimes an embarrassing hemorrhage in the presence of the Chinese ambassador.
And on social media, the new Prime Minister cuts a much better figure because she doesn't shy away from any silly photo.
Nyborg, on the other hand, still believes in privacy.
At most, a landline telephone would be more old-fashioned – or fossil fuels.
When oil is found on Greenland, Nyborg drastically changes course.
Oil may be a thing of the past, but it would make Denmark a lot of money, and after all, only one thing is as enduringly contemporary as money: power.
Without any major scruples, Nyborg says goodbye to climate protection and with it all the beliefs she once stood for.
Nothing is actually left of everything that once defined her, except for her power.
Strong Poison
And that's what this season is about on many levels, not just in politics, but in a second story arc also in the media, where Nyborg's former adviser Katrine Fønsmark (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) has risen to chief of the newsroom and is trying to deal with rude Means of keeping up: about power and how it changes people.
How it hollows out people;
a potent poison to which people sacrifice their relationships, their beliefs, their lives to which they subordinate their lives until very little remains of what once drove them to take responsibility at all.
Until it's just a matter of staying in power.
Finally, Nyborg flies to Greenland.
For her it is a trip at the wrong time, the next day she has to face a special party conference, she is threatened with being voted out.
She reluctantly embarks on an old Greenlandic seal hunter's boat, a tedious diplomatic obligation.
Against the bright blue sky, the ship glides past an iceberg.
The hunter tells Nyborg about an old Greenlandic myth: the mother of the sea.
It is she who gives people food - or withholds food from them if they are too greedy.
An explosion can be heard in the background.
The Chinese.
They want to build a port on Greenland and are now blowing up a mountain.
He owes his new boat to you, says the hunter.
But since he's owned it, he hasn't caught a single seal.
The mother of the sea probably thinks he's too greedy.
Nyborg replies that she has also got involved with the Chinese.
What did she get?
"Power." Her gaze flickers as if she's horrified at herself. Like a junkie looking in the mirror.
However, the season is not quite over yet.
And after all, Birgitte Nyborg is the greatest politician of the international series era.
