The Week That Was, June 16th – 22nd 2019:

Posted on 16. Jun, 2019 in: TWTW

Politics/Economy:

Mette Frederiksen has a very strong chance of becoming Denmark’s next prime minister according to her allies on the left. After four days of negotiations, Social Liberal (Radikale) leader Morten Østergaard said, cryptically, ‘it appears we are ready to launch the ship and are in agreement where it’s heading.’

The three parties on the left – the Social Liberals, Red/Greens, and Socialist People’s Party – have tabled a number of demands, including more social welfare, a halt to education cutbacks, and minimum staff requirements in childcare institutions.

Social Liberal (Radikale) leader Morten Østergaard said it’s important that the current round of negotiations produces a ‘viable, sustainable government’, unlike in 2011 when lengthy government negotiations culminated in an ‘unworkable centre left coalition.’

Interim prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said his pre-election decision to drop his centre-right partners and push for a centrist unity government was made to stop the emergence of far-right parties but also because he had known since 2016  the Liberal/Conservative/Liberal Alliance coalition couldn’t win.

Anti-Islamist Rasmus Paludan vowed to keep holding Koran-burning demonstrations throughout the country despite new figures showing the police have spent DKK100m ($15m) so far this year protecting him.

Speaker of the House Pia Kjærsgaard is stepping down following the defeat of the centre-right alliance but will continue as an MP for the Danish People’s Party (DPP), which she formed 24 years ago.

Liberal Alliance MPs appointed newly-elected 27-year-old Alex Vanopslagh as party leader following acting foreign minister Anders Samuelsen who resigned last week following the party’s disastrous election showing.

Voter turnout was surprisingly low at the June 5th election – only 84.6% of eligible voters cast ballots, the lowest since 2005, even though the election was held on a national holiday – the previous low was in 1995 when the same percentage voted.

Election experts defended parties who lobbied for the ‘Muslim vote’  following reports that the Fredens Mosque in Aarhus urged Muslims to vote for either the Red/Greens or Social Liberals (Radikale).

Inflation fell to 0.7% in May, year on year, down from 1.0% in April.

Foreign Affairs/EU:

The Social Democrats called for a pan-EU corporate tax rate of 22% – the same as Denmark’s – to avoid a ‘race to the bottom.’

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s Competition Commissioner who has constantly come under fire from President Trump for dishing out multi-million fines to American multinationals such as Apple, Google, and Facebook, said it’s time for more ‘hard-nosed’ women in a male-dominated world and it’s ‘imperative’ for a woman to lead the EU for the next five years.

The Danish People’s Party (DPP) is officially part of a new, far-right group at the European Parliament – France’s Marine Le Pen unveiled the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, Thursday, which brings together her own National Rally, Italy’s League party, Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) plus nationalists from Austria, Finland and Denmark.

Ex-prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said US sanctions against European – and Danish – companies could be the only solution if Europe fails to halt the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany – Russia warned that neither Denmark, nor the United States, nor any other country can hamper the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that’s currently under construction and fast approaching Bornholm but still hasn’t been granted Danish approval.

Denmark is amongst the EU countries most successful at getting the unemployed back into the labour market – the latest Eurostat figures show Luxembourg, where 44% of the jobless get work in the subsequent quarter, is no.1. Denmark, with 35.5% is ranked 3rd.

The United Nations purchased goods and services totalling DKK3.6bn ($550.91M) from Denmark last year.

The Danish People’s Party’s deputy leader, Søren Espersen, said Denmark should denounce China and offer support for the Hong Kong demonstrators.

Social Affairs:

Acting integration minister Inger Støjberg’s role in the ’child brides’ affair has become part of the ongoing government negotiations – the Social Liberals (Radikale) demanded a full-scale inquiry into the illegal separation of young asylum-seeker couples in violation of Danish law and international human rights agreements.

The Red/Greens, Socialist People’s Party (SPP) and Social Liberals (Radikale) are demanding amendments to the rules that have led to the deportation of 70 minors, including 13-year-old Thai girl Mint who was controversially deported last year under the terms of stringent family reunification legislation.

The number of social benefits claimants is at a 10-year low – 125,900 during the year’s first quarter according to a new report Statistics Denmark, a drop of 13,300 people over the past year.

The Foreign Ministry’s Citizens’ Service confirmed that two French orphans with links to Denmark were amongst twelve orphaned children of French jihadists flown home from Syria.

Following reports that 1 in 4 Greenlandic has been sexually, Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, MP for the Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) party, appealed to Denmark’s next government to set aside funding for a catastrophe fund so sexual victims can apply for assistance.

Business:

A group of 30 investors from the US, Great Britain and Germany are preparing a class-action lawsuit to recover the estimated €100m they claim they lost as a result of the bank’s falling stock market value in the wake of the money laundering scandal.

US IT giant Apple dropped plans to build a new DKK6bn ($921m) data centre in Aabenraa, south-west Denmark, and will now concentrate solely on a similar project the company is constructing in Viborg, which is due to be completed later this year.

The Vietnamese government is hoping to attract Danish investors to Hanoi by offering very favourable conditions.

And That Was the Week That Was, June 16th – 22nd 2019: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).