In the first weeks of June 2021, the Ortega regime in Nicaragua has imprisoned four presidential candidates as well as a larger group of opposition leaders.

Also among those most recently arrested are leaders of the UNAMOS (formerly reform-sandinistas MRS) party, which is supported by the Unity List. The Unity List strongly objects to the detentions. There are currently almost 130 political prisoners in Nicaragua, and the last wave of arrests has the clear aim of preventing the democratic opposition from standing in the forthcoming elections on 7 November. With a set of repressive laws and a restrictive electoral law, Ortega can imprison anyone from the opposition on loose charges of 'treason against the fatherland'. The many imprisonments and exclusions of opposition parties and politicians make the forthcoming elections a farce. Without a shred of evidence, even Ortega's former Sandinista combatants are accused of working for "foreign powers" and stripped of their political rights. The new laws are also used as a pretext to persecute journalists and the critical press. Overall, Ortega's actions represent a coup against the nicaraguan constitutional rights to freely choose and stand for election. Freedom of assembly and organisation have also been abolished. The regime's radical move to exclude the opposition from standing for election demonstrates ortega-murillo's desire to cling to power at all costs. From 1979 onwards, the Sandinist Party was behind a social revolution that brought with it many positive changes, including in terms of democracy and human rights. The Ortega government, elected in 2007, developed into an affront to that legacy. The Ortega government has pursued a right-wing economic policy in alliance with the employers' association, the churches and the United States. At the same time, there was widespread corruption and Ortega's government systematically undert graves democracy in favor of a power-building relationship around the presidential couple's family. This led to the popular uprising in spring 2018. Since the popular uprising against the presidential couple in the spring of 2018, which was met with bloody repression and over 300 deaths, the opposition has demanded a peaceful solution through free and fair elections. Although Ortega can pave the way for a fifth term as president by excluding the opposition, the regime is also losing the last vestige of legitimacy as a legitimately elected government. The Unity List calls on the Danish Government to denounce the ortega government's abuses and demand the immediate release of the political prisoners. The government is invited to take Danish initiatives for targeted actions through the UN and the EU that can help promote democracy and human rights in Nicaragua. Eva Flyvholm, MF, Foreign Policy Spokesperson Christian Juhl, MF, Development Policy Spokesman Nikolaj Villumsen MEP, European Parliament