Summer Summary – the main news while you were away

Posted on 05. Aug, 2018 in: TWTW

Here’s a brief overview of the past three weeks’ news. If you’ve been away you didn’t miss much – apart from a heatwave and the sunniest July on record.

Politics/Economy

The next election campaign looks like being a power struggle between Danish People’s Party (DPP) leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl and his Liberal Alliance (LA) counterpart Anders Samuelsen, while Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen doesn’t even have the support of his own base to repeat the current tripartite government after the next election – a new Gallup poll showed only 10% of Liberal voters would like to see a new Lib/Con/ LA coalition, while one in four would prefer to see LA thrown out and replaced by the Danish People’s Party (DPP).

Pernille Vermund, head of the far-right New Conservatives (Nye Borgerlige) offered to support any centre-right government after the next election that vows to tighten immigration legislation even more.

Leading military experts warned the threat of possible Russian influence on the next Danish general election is real and should be taken very seriously.

A new Gallup poll showed only 3% of Danish voters see Donald Trump as the leader of the free world while 11% see Vladimir Putin as a more credible alternative.

The Danish economy is robust, boosted by consumer spending, high rate of employment, and a booming housing market, but analysts warned of ‘dark clouds’ on the horizon.

The Social Democrats urged Immigration Minister Inger Støjberg to show compassion towards vulnerable UN quota refugees, following a report showing only 581 asylum seekers have been granted residency in Denmark so far this year.

A number of MPs walked out in protest when speaker of the house Pia Kjærsgaard addressed the Icelandic Parliament on the occasion of Iceland’s celebration of 100 years as a sovereign state – she later recieved a formal apology.

The rate of employment hit a record high in May with 2.743.400 people in the labour market.

EU/Foreign Affairs

Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen suggested that Russia’s ambassador to Denmark is suffering from heat stroke after he accused all Danish political parties of ‘Russophobia’.

Mr Samuelsen said  Denmark is an ally of the USA but not necessarily President Trump.

In line with his predecessors at the Foreign Ministry, Mr Samuelsen refused to translate a sensitive ‘diplomatic note’ regarding Denmark’s official position on Tibet.

Russian media reported the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is set to be re-routed to avoid the need for Danish approval. In the midst of tensions with Russia over its plans to build the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany via Danish territorial waters, the Polish government announced that the Baltic Pipe project, which will allow transport of gas from Norway to the Danish and Polish markets, via Denmark, will be completed by 2022.

The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) welcomed the unexpected agreement between the USA and EU to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods as ‘good for Denmark and Danish companies’.

Leaked documents revealed the Danish authorities are wilfully obstructing German environmental policy in the North Sea.

A Danish People’s Party MEP said European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker definitely has a drinking problem.

Danish EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager hit Google with a record five-billion dollar fine for using its Android mobile operating system to squeeze out rivals.

A Danish activist who was released by Israel claimed he was ‘brutally treated’ during four days in captivity.

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

Social Affairs:

Hundreds of women demonstrated in Copenhagen against the Islamic full-face veil ban that came into effect on August 1st.

The number of failed asylum seekers who can’t, or won’t, be repatriated continues to rise – despite a dramatic decrease in the number of refugees arriving in Denmark, 584 failed asylum seekers are currently housed in ‘removal centres’ – despite this, the number of asylum seekers granted residency in Denmark is the lowest for many years.

A new poll showed Danes believe, mistakenly, that Denmark is taking more than its fair share of refugees and migrants.

A report by the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) showed none of the 173 Eritrean refugees who arrived in Denmark in 2014 had found work a year later.

Despite constant claims of a labour shortage, new figures revealed that more than 5,000 east-Europeans are claiming the lucrative unemployment insurance benefit (dagpenge), compared to only 850 eight years ago.

A Copenhagen imam who called for death to all Jews in a fiery sermon at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque in Nørrebro earlier this year was charged with incitement under the hate-speech law on religious preaching.

A 34-year-old Slovakian national was sentenced to 40 days in prison, with deportation to follow, for assaulting the partner of Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen.

The “Global Muslim Travel Index 2018” (GMTI 18), which covers 130 destinations, showed Denmark isn’t a welcoming destination for Muslim tourists.

Business:

Estonia launched a criminal investigation into the Danske Bank money laundering scandal, a move so far resisted by Denmark, after William Browder, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, widened his lawsuit to include 26 bankers who worked for the bank in Estonia.

Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov warned that Danske Bank isn’t off the hook just because it has promised to donate profit made from the money laundering scandal to ‘good causes’ – Denmark’s biggest bank has lost a quarter of its market value this year. Top New York litigation firm Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman launched an investigation, on behalf of clients, as to whether Danske Bank has violated U.S rules for stock market trading by alleged money laundering in Estonia.

The Danish krone is extremely vulnerable to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China – according to Danske Bank the Swiss franc, Danish krone and Swedish krone are likely to be the worst-affected given that they represent small and open economies even though the nations’ direct trade exposure to China is relatively low.

Apple, Facebook and Google’s plans to build data centres in Denmark have raised concerns about a long-term shortfall in the supply of renewable energy and the prospect of rising CO2 emissions.

British retail giant Debenhams is looking to offload its Danish department store chain Magasin du Nord for around DKK2bn.

And That Was The Summer News, July 15th – August 5th 2018: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).