Lister

By Katrine Villadsen
Translated by Maria Lillegaard Hansen

“No to everything!” it says on one of the party members’ T-shirt.

“If we are negative? No way! When nothing matters anyway, we might as well spend time having fun,” says Mads Vestergaard, president and co-founder of Nihilistic People’s Party. He readily explains the ideas of the party.

First and foremost nothing is important – we are all doomed anyway. By giving up all hope and idealism, you gain an absurd form of freedom – a freedom you might as well use for partying and forgetting all about trying to make a difference. The party members gladly do this whenever they get the chance.

Big ambitions

The idea for this cheerful project came into existence during a drunken night in 2007. And Mads and some friends from philosophy studies at the University of  Copenhagen decided to bring the idea to life.

“The day after we officially founded the party, a reaction came from the Danish government: they called an election! This could only happen because the government was afraid of us and wanted to make sure that we did not have enough time to establish an election campaign,” Mads says with great conviction and a big smile.

But the next time, the nihilists will not be taken by surprise. Therefore a small group of members in black T-shirts with slogans is collecting signatures from the sunburned festival guests in summer-clothes. They are almost out of flyers, but that is just cool, because then the rest of the festival can be spent drinking, says Mads who is running as the party’s candidate for mayor in Copenhagen at the local election in the autumn of 2009.

Facts on Nihilistic People’s Party

Nihilism: A belief that there is no meaning, purpose or value with the human existence

Was founded in 2007 after a drunken night

Running for the local election in Copenhagen this autumn

Wants to run for the general election in 2011

The party’s Facebook group has over 1100 members

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