The Week That Was, January 24th – 30th 2022
Coronavirus/ What happened last week:
Despite more than 50,000 new infections a day, the government announced that all corona restrictions will be lifted on Tuesday, February 1st – Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said ‘it’s time to shrug our shoulders and bring back the smiles.’
Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said there’s good control over hospitalisation rates thanks to a combination of 3.5 million people revaccinated and the less health-threatening Omicron.
The health authorities are cutting the daily rapid response (antigen) testing capacity from 500,000 to 200,000 per day over the next two weeks.
Politics:
As expected, Morten Messerschmidt was elected new Danish People’s Party (DPP) leader but it could be a short term – ahead of Christmas the High Court overturned the 6-month conditional prison sentence handed down to him in August when Lyngby District Court found him guilty of defrauding EU funds and forgery in the ‘Meld and Feld affair’ but there will be a retrial sometime this year.
In a video interview with Politiken, notorious whisteblower Edward Snowden, now a resident of Russia, characterised the Danish espionage scandal as a ’democratic scandal’ – he also claimed to have read confidential documents regarding DK-US collaboration that have never been made public.
Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup said the government is determined to push through a new ‘snooping’ bill that would allow telecom companies to maintain logs of all mobile calls and text messages despite claims it could be illegal and risks being rejected by the EU Court of Justice for the second time.
Denmark shared first place on the latest Corruption Perceptions Index, published by Transparency International, alongside New Zealand and Finland.
The latest National Bank figures showed Denmark’s national debt is at a 12-year low – DKK 438bn (around $60bn) or 17.8% of GDP, the lowest since 2009.
Foreign Affairs/EU:
A Danish taskforce despatched to Mali last week is being brought home after the military government called for an ‘immediate withdrawal”‘as the deployment had never been officially approved – Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said he’s in no doubt that the junta is collaborating with Russia in a ‘dirty game.’ while France’s Jean-Yves Le Drian said the ‘illegitimate junta’ had made an ‘irresponsible’ decision. In a joint statement on Wednesday, 15 countries, led by France, said they ‘deeply regretted’ allegations by Mali’s transitional government that the Danish contingent in the Takuba Task Force was made without a proper legal basis.
Following a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, Monday, Mr Kofod warned that the EU was ready to hit Moscow with “never-seen-before” sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine but declined to speculate about which sectors would be targeted – after talks in Copenhagen with his Ukraine counterpart, Dmytro Kuleban, later in the week he promised the east-European country an extra DKK 560m (around $86m) in financial aid over the next four years.
The Foreign Ministry advised against all unnecessary travel to Ukraine due to the tense border situation with Russia.
Social Affairs:
64-year-old Per Christensen, head of 3F, Denmark’s largest and most powerful trade union, quit after tabloid daily BT revealed he had enjoyed a polyamorous relationship with several woman for years and used his leadership position to cover up a life of infidelity.
The government proposed making the Holocaust compulsory learning in schools and colleges, part of a wide range of measures aimed at stemming the growing wave of anti-Semitism in this country.
A newly-elected Social Liberal (Radikale) council member from Brøndby, west of Copenhagen, came under fire for claiming that the brutal murder of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty in 2020 had nothing to do with Islam ‘because Muslims don’t murder people.’
Business:
After reporting less than expected earnings in 2012, clean energy giant Vestas warned that profitability woes in the wind turbine industry would continue for at least the rest of the year as the green energy industry faces ‘challenging times.’
A new Danish study showed plug-in hybrid cars emit far greater amounts of CO2 than permitted to be considered ‘green’ by the tax authorities.
The consumer confidence index rose to -1.5 in January from -2.1 in December. The average for the past six months was 1.7.