While you were away: A round up of the Christmas News 21-31.12 2018

Posted on 01. Jan, 2019 in: TWTW

Politics/Economy:

The opposition remains on course for victory in the general election that will be held before June 2019 – Megafon’s final poll of 2018 showed 49.4% of the electorate would vote for a ‘red bloc’ party if an election was held right now, with 46.4% for the ‘blue’ government alliance.

Parliament passed the government’s 2019 budget by a significant majority ahead of the Christmas break – the budget includes more money for the elderly, cutbacks in social benefits for immigrants, and DKK 759m in funding for the government’s controversial ‘refugee island’ project.

In addition to approving the refugee island project parliament also passed legislation requiring anyone awarded Danish citizenship to shake hands at their naturalisation ceremony – a demand primarily aimed at Muslim women.

An unemployment insurance fund was granted a face to face meeting with Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s two years ago after donating DKK50,000 to his charitable ‘Løkke Foundation’ – Berlingske reported how Mr Rasmussen’s son, Bergur Løkke Rasmussen, acted as an intermediary between the Akademikernes A-kasse and his father’s foundation, which led to the prime minister making a personal visit to the A-Kasse to discuss unemployment benefits and employment requirements.

Denmark’s consumer confidence index fell to 2.9 points in December from 4.3 points in November, the lowest reading for two years. even though the retail sales index was up 3.4 percent in November from a year earlier and is now at its highest level since 2010.

2018 was the worst year for the Danish krone since 2012 when the National Bank was forced to intervene with a series of interest rate cuts to weaken the krone and defend its link to the euro.

EU/Foreign Affairs:

The Tax Department (SKAT) launched a legal action against Canada’s Health Care of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), which allegedly participated in the share dividend scandal that cost Denmark a reported DKK12.3bn (nearly $2bn).

The latest Statistics Denmark figures, covering the first ten months of last year, showed Americans were the biggest group of visitors to Denmark with 600,000 overnight stays, followed by 530,000 British tourists.

Social Affairs:

The Danish People’s Party called for asylum seekers and criminal refugees who go missing from the Kærshovedgård transit centre to be imprisoned, following new figures showing that around 3 in 4 of all residents registered at the centre since March 2016 have disappeared.

Ahead of Christmas a 31-year-old Syrian national was charged with planning a terrorist attack in Copenhagen in November 2016 – the Public Prosecutor said the man was arrested with knives and explosives for ‘random attacks’ against the public.

A Danish international footballer was at the centre of a murder attempt on Christmas Day – Lyngby BK striker Nicki Bille Villareal, who previously played in Spain for Villareal, Rayo Vallecano and Elche, was shot after getting into a fight with three people at his home in Copenhagen.

To read all the above articles in full see:  http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)

Business:

KMD, Denmark’s largest IT company, was bought out by Japan’s NEC Corp for around DKK8bn ($1.23 bn) in a pre-New Year deal.

APM Terminals, a unit of Danish transport giant AP Moller Maersk, announced plans to open India’s first environment approved inland container depot (ICD) for handling chemicals.

Wind energy giant Vestas received a pre-Christmas order from Russia to supply 52 turbines to the country’s largest wind farm, Kamensko-Krasnosulinsky, located in the Rostov region.

Danish mink farmers warned they will slash production by 25-30% next year following a drastic fall in exports – Denmark is the largest producer of mink skins in the world.

Pension fund MP Pension, which has stopped investing in 14 countries with poor human rights records, said it wouldn’t exclude Russia and China, both guilty of serious transgressions – head of investment Anders Schelde said the fund needs to spread its risk and the two countries can’t be avoided.

And That Was The Christmas News for the final 10 days of December, 2019 – To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).