The Week That Was, October 21st – 28th 2019:

Posted on 27. Oct, 2019 in: TWTW

Politics/Economy:

The climate topped the agenda on the first day of budget negotiations hosted by Finance Minister Nikolaj Wammen, Monday – the government’s parliamentary backers tabled a list of ’green’ demands, including a duty on flight travel, agricultural land set-asides, more forests, better conditions for electric cars, far cheaper public transport, and more climate investment.

Climate Minister Dan Jørgensen declined to say whether the eighth licensing round of tenders for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea will continue – the ruling Social Democrats have come under pressure from their left-leaning allies in parliament to ban future oil and gas exploration to speed up phasing out of fossil fuels.

Parliament passed a law allowing the government to strip dual-national citizens who’ve fought abroad alongside foreign armed groups of their citizenship.

The Danish People’s Party’s deputy leader, Søren Espersen, urged Christiansborg (Parliament) to play host to the Stram Kurs’ (Hard Line) national conference after police in Funen banned the far-right party from Middelfart last weekend.

Following a disastrous showing at the June general election a new survey showed the populist Danish People’s Party (DPP) is slowly regaining some of its voters who drifted to either the Social Democrats or Liberals (Venstre).

Former cabinet minister Simon Emil Ammitzbøll-Bille quit the Liberal Alliance (LA) following pressure from party leadership who accused him of ‘disloyalty’.

The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.8 percent in August, unchanged from the previous month, as the number of unemployed persons fell by just 285 to 104.763 thousand.

Foreign Affairs/EU:

The Social Liberals (Radikale) questioned Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s claim that the EU’s expenditure on administration will rise by DKK35bn (€4.66bn) in its long-term budget for 2021-27 – EU spokesman Jens Rohde accused her of ‘juggling the figures’.

During a visit to Copenhagen, Counselor to the U.S. Department of State Ulrich Brechbuhl, one of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s key deputies, urged Denmark to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP as promised at the 2014 NATO summit in Wales – a cross-party parliamentary majority agreed to send military personnel and equipment to the UN’s mission in Mali and also the French-led military mission in the Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the government is willing to consider a German proposal to send a European task force to Northern Syria to support a security zone along the Turkish border.

China’s embassy in Copenhagen denounced former speaker of the house Pia Kjærsgaard’s visit to Taiwan last week, accusing her of ‘failing to respect the one-China policy, the official foreign policy of Denmark.’

The State Prosecutor’s Office for Serious Economic and International Crime (SØIK), popularly known as the fraud squad, raided the offices of Dan-Bunkering in Middelfart looking for possible violations of EU sanctions on Syria.

A group of U.S. lawmakers called on the U.S. State Department to add a Danish neo-Nazi organisation to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO).

Experts in a new report by the Centre for Military Studies at Copenhagen University claimed Denmark wouldn’t be capable of resisting a Russian or Chinese buy-out of its critical infrastructure.

A global study showed Denmark and the Netherlands have the best pensions systems in the world.

A fourth person was charged with aiding a foreign intelligence service by ‘snitching’ on Danish-Turkish opponents of the Ergodan government.

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary attended the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito in Japan, Tuesday.

Carla Sands, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark and former advisor to President Trump, sold her Bel-Air home for $19.5 million, or about 14% less than the most recent asking price of $22.8 million.

Social Affairs:

The always tense relationship between Turkish and Kurdish groups in Denmark has worsened following Turkey’s Syria offensive according to insiders on both sides.

Four Kurdish nationals who firebombed the Turkish embassy in Copenhagen last year were sentenced to prison with deportation to follow by the High Court.

67% of all newcomers to Denmark last year came from a western country, while 63% of all emigrants left Denmark for another western nation.

A new study showed half of the electorate see immigration as a threat to society, the highest figure for nearly thirty years.

14 year-old Thai girl Mint, who was controversially deported to Thailand last year under the terms of the previous government’s strict family reunification rules, was allowed to return and apply for permanent residency.

The public’s debt to the state in the form of unpaid taxes, VAT, train fines, TV licence fees, parking tickets, or other debt has risen to DKK123bn – Tax Minister Morten Bødskov said new debt collection rules have been postponed for a further three years due to ongoing problems with the tax department’s new IT system.

Social fraudster Britta Nielsen was rushed to hospital on the first day of her trial at Copenhagen City Court, Thursday, after ‘partially’ confessing to embezzling millions of kroner from the state.

Business:

The U.S. put pressure on Estonia to make sure criminal investigations into money laundering at Danske Bank result in convictions – more investors launched demands for compenstation against the bank for money lost because of the money laundering scandal.

Millions of dollars from alleged criminal activities in Eastern Europe were ‘whitewashed’ through Danish companies and banks according to an indictment by the State Prosecutor’s Office for Serious Economic and International Crime (SØIK), popularly known as the fraud squad.

Eight former executives of Amagerbanken, a Danish lender that collapsed in 2011, were ordered to pay DKK255.5m ($37m) in compensation to the state.

Shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk upwardly adjusted its expectations for 2019 profit – it now expects pre-tax earnings in the range of $5.4 to $5.8 billion, up from its previous expectation of around $5 billion. Maersk identified three eco-friendly fuels to replace oil for its fleet of 700 container vessels as it moves towards its target to become CO2 neutral by 2050.

Scandinavia’s flagship airline, SAS, won a DKK900m contract with the Armed Forces in Norway.

Biotech company Bavarian Nordic agreed to pay pharma giant Glaxosmithkline (GSK) €955m for two travel vaccines.

The Organic Food Market in Denmark is expected to rise to $8.2bn by the end of 2025.

And That Was the Week That Was, October 21st – 28th 2019: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).