The Week That Was, November 22nd– 29th 2021:

Coronavirus/ What happened last week:

The daily infection rate topped 4,000 by the end of the week as the pandemic continues to grow. The government’s Epidemic Committee approved further measures to contain the spread of the virus – from Monday, facemasks will be required in supermarkets, on public transport, and for all health-related visits. Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said infections and hospitalisations have risen faster than expected but dismissed calls to suspend the treatment guarantee for patients awaiting operations, as suggested by the Danish Medical Association (Lægeforeningen).

The health authorities are aiming to increase vaccination capacity to 300,000 a week to combat the increasing infection rate.

The Danish Health Authority offered a third COVID-19 vaccination shot to everyone over the age of 18.

Politics/Economy:

The court of impeachment concluded 31 days of hearings in the trial of former immigration minister Inger Støjberg – the 26 judges are expected to announce their decision on December 13th. Ms Støjberg said she would spend the time between now and December 13th ‘considering her future’ but declined to rule out the possibility of becoming leader of the Danish People’s Party (DPP) after Kristian Thulesen Dahl, who’s stepping down following a disastrous showing for the populist party at last week’s municipal elections.

IT technicians successfully restored deleted text messages from former food minister Mogens Jensen’s smart phone – the messages are seen as ’extremely relevant’ to the Mink Commission’s probe. The Commission claimed there was nothing to stop the prime minister and three of her top aids releasing information about deleted text messages before last week’s municipal elections but Ms Frederiksen sxaid she had been ‘too busy’ – Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup refused to issue any guarantee that the police were given all the smartphones used by the prime minister.

700 mink breeders who feel they haven’t been granted sufficient compensation after their industry was destroyed last year are suing the Danish state for a further DKK600m.

The Social Democrats fell to their lowest level of support for two years in a new Voxmeter poll, which indicated a virtual dead heat between the two rival factions if an election was held right now, with 88 seats for the ‘red’ bloc and 87 for the ‘blues’.

Danish Defence is facing a ‘rap on the knuckles’ from NATO after being forced to postpone a major military build-up because a large portion of funding appropriated by parliament in the most recent defence bill has been delayed and the timetable for hiring 350 personnel pushed back.

28 Syrian nationals and family members denied asylum in Denmark have reappeared in other countries over the past few months – a new status report by the Repatriation Agency (Hjemrejsestyrelsen) showed most of the Syrians have travelled to Holland to seek asylum, but others are now in Germany, Finland, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, France, or other EU countries.

Foreign Affairs/EU:

The crew of a Danish frigate killed four pirates in waters south of Nigeria, Wednesday, one day before Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was scheduled to inspect the ship as part of her official visit to Ghana – four other alleged pirates who survived the shootout in the Gulf of Guinea were charged with attempted murder, ‘in absentia’, at Copenhagen District Court, Thursday.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrived in Ghana for 2-day official visit to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Denmark and Indonesia signed two agreements aimed at boosting the Asian nation’s green and sustainable development goals. Following his visit to Indonesia Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod carried on to Tokyo, Tuesday, where he held talks with his Japanese counterpart, Hayashi Yoshimasa, before continuing to China.

Danish grid operator Energinet signed deals with Belgium’s Elia and Germany’s 50Hertz that move Denmark closer to building two sea links connecting its offshore wind turbines to Germany and Belgium to boost the flow of green energy in the region.

The Foreign Ministry successfully evacuated a further 21 people from Afghanistan – at the same time Berlingske reported that 23 interpreters who worked for Danish forces in Afghanistan were ‘passed on’ to the UK at a cost of DKK39.8m ($6m).

Turkey said it isn’t interested in purchasing some of the Danish Air Force’s ageing F-16 fighter jets.

Parliament started negotiations about who gets what from the EU’s DKK1.2b compensation package offered to Danish fishermen who’ve suffered a reduction in quotas following Brexit.

Social Affairs:

The number of wage earners in the labour market rose to 2.882m in September, the highest number ever recorded.

The six remaining survivors of 22 indigenous Greenlanders who were removed from their families in 1951 and relocated to Denmark in a failed social experiment in 1951 threatened to sue the Danish state unless they receive financial compensation.

The right-wing British Daily Mail urged the country’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to look towards Denmark ‘where Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye has managed to do what the British government can only dream about – control and limit immigration.’

Danish jailbirds could soon be serving their prison sentence abroad – the government is hoping to solve the problem of overcrowded Danish prisons by renting jail space in ‘unnamed’ foreign countries, according to a confidential memo seen by Politiken

Business:

Corona concerns led to the Danish stock market’s biggest 1-day fall since the March 2020 lockdown, Tuesday.

Consumers have become more pessimistic following the reintroduction of some corona restrictions – the consumer confidence index fell to minus 2 from plus 3.3 a month earlier, the first negative reading since April.

Despite new restrictions and a rise in coronavirus infections, restaurant spending in the period Nov. 13th – 20th – the first week after the Danish government introduced mandatory corona passports for diners – rose roughly 20% compared with 2019 levels.

Wind energy giant Vestas acknowledged that the cyber attack it reported last week affected parts of its internal IT infrastructure and data was “compromised”.

The Baltic Pipe project, a 275-kilometre long gas pipeline across Denmark, Sweden and Poland is moving closer to completion – Polish GAZ-SYSTEM announced the construction of the offshore section was completed, the end of the most important stage of construction.

And That Was The Week That Was, November 22nd– 29th 2021: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).