Schlüter 'kartoffelkur' — fixed-krone disinflation, fiscal consolidation

Doctrine — stated goals and content

First Danish Conservative-led government in 81 years, taking office September 1982 without an election when Anker Jørgensen resigned. Launched the "kartoffelkur" (potato cure) — a textbook exchange-rate-peg-based disinflation. School: hard-currency disinflation doctrine (proto-monetarist ERM framework) combined with incomes-policy-free wage bargaining — explicitly ended the devaluation-plus-wage-compensation cycle. Left-right axis: centre-right; within European terms more continental Christian- democratic than Thatcherite — fiscal consolidation without welfare-state retrenchment. Core policy content: (i) "October 1982 package" suspending wage indexation (dyrtidsregulering) and committing to fixed krone within ERM; (ii) nominal-wage restraint, elimination of automatic cost-of-living adjustment; (iii) real interest rates allowed to rise to credibility-build the peg; (iv) 1986 "påskepakke" (easter package) tightening on consumption in response to overheating; (v) 1987 tax reform broadening base and reducing marginal rates; (vi) continued growth of welfare state but deficit cut from ~9% GDP (1982) to surplus (1986) before re-widening after påskepakke-induced downturn. Popularity signals: 1984 election KF+V+CD+KrF bloc won majority (KF 23.4%, highest ever); 1987 election KF 20.8%; 1988 KF 19.3% — sustained multi-term mandate. Coherence: high — the kartoffelkur is the reference case of successful fixed-exchange-rate disinflation; Denmark exited stagflation, but the 1986 overheating and subsequent stagnation 1987-1993 revealed the cost of maintaining peg through wage-cost compression.