Political chess pieces never say to check or sign tables. They remain stuck until the game resumes: hunger, social and trade union conflict, international impulse and an election that once again redefines the scoreboard. It will be seen in Borgen: Kingdom, power and glory, the sequel to the great political series that Netflix relaunches on June 2nd.

Almost ten years after the last move of the pieces. Three seasons, from 2010 to 2013, had transformed the Dane Borgen in the most important political fiction (outside the Anglo-Saxon world) of the new golden age of the serieswho mutated this streaming platform contest to appeal to global audiences (in another daunting multi-screen chess move).

Its planetary contender House of Cards has fallen out of favor due to its protagonist’s sexual abuse complaints and evidence Kevin Spacey, Borgen remained strong on the podium of the series illustrating the high and low politics of the 21st century with the same intensity. Without cliché, with humanism and sagacity.

What the fourth season brings

what did you offer Borgen and what this fourth season R meanseino, power and glory, inside and outside the Christianborg Palace, in Copenhagen? The Danish Parliament, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Supreme Court reside together, unexploded.

Hence the colloquial expression “Borgen” (“the castle”).. And in her first three seasons, star Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) became Prime Minister of Denmark. She lost one love and met another, not without anguish in the end.

But in this brand new Kingdom, power and glory, of eight episodes, Birgitte Nyborg returns as foreign minister, in the midst of a geopolitical conflict after the discovery of oil in Greenland. Presumably not just an island of ice and snow, but a nation within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1953.

This will lead to an argument that the Danes have not always dared to debate and assume (at least from fiction): the possible independence of Greenland. The claims of self-determination will be reflected in furious debates and even in wide open shots of a fascinating natural region, in contrast to the gray shots dominating in the first three seasons of Borgen.

It is an obvious dialogue, but in an oblique way, with the anxiety – realistic or displaced – of independence groups in different places such as Scotland or Catalonia, not to think, of course, of the economic tensions that still derive from Brexit in Great Britain.

Messianic leaders with easy solutions

the renovated Borgenco-produced by Netflix and Danmarks Radio (DR), it will also touch the rise of messianic leaders with easy solutions to complex problems in this multilateral time: hunger and inequality, the lack of inclusion of immigrantsconstant xenophobia, political and business corruption.

Borgen she was also a pioneer in addressing and anticipating the ultraconservative backlash to feminist movements that made the West and Nordic region more like progress in the 21st century.

From 2010 to 2013, her narrative lines were aligned with today’s busiest feminist debates. During the previous thirty episodes, she hasn’t shied away from marveling what it means for women to occupy central leadership positions in a sexist and unequal world.

And Birgitte Nyborg will never be shown in a dull way. The central theme of Borgen they are not “women”, but the struggles in the eye of power and how society, when it does not progress, remains at the mercy of its own drives and the worst electoral and collective decisions.

In this way, Denmark becomes from Borgen a global metaphor. We will have to go back to understand these Nordic chess moves in a series created by Adam Price and originally intended for broadcast on the public channel DR1.

The expected mass

Until two years ago the headlines said “Netflix is ​​resurrected BorgenAnd the surprise fourth season has been happily announced: this month’s streaming political star. will succeed Borgen: Kingdom, power and glory pending mass?

Even the partisan controversies of the series do not hide their ties to the present. Birgitte Nyborg belongs to The Moderates, the center party. Some, more generous, call it “center left”, a strong definition in a country that promotes an intelligent relationship between the smart state and the business class.

Just as the moderates are inspired by the Danish Social Party, the fictional Labor Party is reminiscent of the Social Democrats and the Green Party (ecologist) the Socialist People’s Party. The Liberal Party mirrors the Danish Conservative People’s Party and follows equivalences.

But Birgitte Nyborg, has she always been and always will be in the same place? Already in the third season she had founded the New Democrats party after losing the election. Her motives were the way the moderates ignored her ideals, seek more inclusive policies for Danes and also for immigrants.

The offers of the New Democrats between certain “blue” and “red” blocs have placed the former prime minister in front of another clear choice: to put Denmark above itself. And in 2013 she had to settle for the current position of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“I’m finally back in my second home,” Nyborg said of the Christianborg Palace. This is one of a kind, as it makes the three powers coexist and the Danish monarchy also occupies different sections. This is why it is also known as “Rigsborgen” (“the castle of the kingdom”).

It remains only to see how they unfold in the media. Borgen the tensions arising from Greenland’s desire for independence: with necessary, implausible and even childish debates. The final intrigue will be in the movements and statements of Minister Nyborg.

“Is it the same one we met eleven years ago?”, Is heard in the official trailer. The pieces of Denmark go up the board again. Who runs them now? For who is it? Any resemblance to reality is not pure chance.

wd