The Week That Was, September 2nd – 8th 2019:
Politics/Economy:
As expected, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen formally announced his bid to become Liberal Party leader following ex-PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s dramatic resignation – he will be joined on a ‘dream ticket’ by former immigration minister Inger Støjberg. Local Liberal politicians urged Ms Støjberg to tone down her harsh language against immigrants if, and when, she becomes the party’s deputy leader.
Mr Løkke Rasmussen was praised in editorials as a very shrewd politician who achieved significant political results, but also suffered from a lack of judgement – tabloid daily Ekstra Bladet reported he’s been offered four million kroner to start a new party. Ex-finance minister Kristian Jensen described the Liberals’ Executive Committee meeting last week that led to the ousting of both himself and party leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen as ‘brutal and direct’.
Opposition parties accused the government of a breach of promise after the centre-left majority appropriated DKK250m in emergency child funding for cash-strapped families on welfare – the money is aimed at ‘alleviating the problems of child poverty and helping to get more people into employment’ but according to the Danish People’s Party it’s a further softening of immigration policy.
The government is hoping for a cross party agreement on a new climate bill but is already assured of a majority with its centre-left allies – the ruling Social Democrats have vowed to deliver a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
Following the government’s ’state of the economy report’ last week, Nordea Markets noted that the Danish economy grew by as much as 0.8% in the second quarter and at the same time, growth in the first quarter was upgraded by 0.1 percentage points to 0.2%.
183,000 taxpayers are facing an extra bill if parliament passes the Socialist People’s Party’s (SPP) proposal for a wealth tax to finance more staff in kindergartens.
The Danish Debt Collection Agency (Gældsstyrelsen) is still struggling to recover the DKK118bn owed by the public in the form of unpaid taxes, VAT, train fines, TV licence, parking tickets, or other debt to the state.
Foreign Affairs/EU:
U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands visited the White House, Thursday, where she held talks with National Security Advisor John Bolton – although Donald Trump cancelled his state visit to Denmark he was here ‘in spirit’, Monday, when the giant ‘Baby Trump’ balloon that has followed the president across the world in protests was raised over Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen.
Denmark provisionally agreed to buy new, top of the line equipment that will give the Danish Navy the capability to perform anti-submarine warfare missions – the nine sonar Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) systems and six hundred Sonobuoys will cost an estimated DKK1.3bn ($200 million) and increase Denmark’s significant within NATO, according to head of the navy, Rear Admiral Torben Mikkelsen.
40 warships from 16 different nations gathered in Copenhagen harbor for the annual Northern Coasts naval exercise that got underway on Friday – the two-week NATO-run operation, with 4,500 naval operatives, will take place near the Danish straits connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, as well as between Kiel and Bornholm. At the same time Danish fighter aircraft, alongside their Belgian and Czech counterparts, started patrolling the skies over the three Baltic countries as part of NATO’s air policing mission.
The consortium behind the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany said the project is 75% finished but completion depends on securing Danish approval.
Former foreign minister Anders Samuelsen has been hired as consultant to one of Denmark’s wealthiest and most successful businessmen, Saxo Bank founder Lars Seier Christensen.
Social Affairs:
The government granted Denmark’s five regional authorities an extra DKK1.5bn ($210m) in funding next year but it’s still DKK500m less than, it’s claimed, is needed to maintain an efficient health sector.
According to police documents obtained under freedom of information legislation, Stram Kurs (Hard Line) leader Rasmus Paludan was denied the right to demonstrate in April because the police had received information about a threat on his life.
Aarhus University was forced to withdraw a controversial report that downplayed the effects of beef on the climate after it was revealed that the Danish Agriculture & Food Council, a trade organisation that promotes meat sales, had edited part of the report and heavily influenced a press release on the findings.
A 39-year-old Norwegian-Iranian man who was detained last year on suspicion of helping an Iranian intelligence agency carry out an assassination in this country was remanded in custody for a further four weeks.
The head of the State Prosecutor’s Office for Serious Economic and International Crime (SØIK), popularly known as the fraud squad, was relieved of his duties with immediate effect.
Copenhagen was ranked the world’s ninth most livable city in the world on the latest Global Liveability Index by financial weekly, The Economist.
Business:
Danske Bank re-shuffled its management structure – Stephan Engels from Commerzbank was appointed to lead the clean-up operation following the money laundering scandal.
National Bank Governor Lars Rohde dismissed finance industry appeals to compensate banks for negative interest rates that are costing them money – Sydbank, Denmark’s third-biggest listed bank, recently placed a rate of minus 0.6% on retail deposits larger than DKK7.5m ($1.1m) following Jyske, the first to impose a negative rate on deposits.
Lego suffered a 12% drop in earnings in the first half despite a 4% increase in revenue – the global toy giant reported first-half revenue of DKK14.8bn ($2.2bn) while net profit dropped to DKK2.7bn ($400m).
Danish pension fund MP Pension is selling off its stakes in 10 of the world’s biggest oil firms – ExxonMobil , BP, Chevron, PetroChina, Rosneft, Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Total, Petrobras and Equinor – as it seeks to divest major sources of carbon emissions from its portfolio.
340 electric cars were sold in Denmark in August, a 98% increase on the same month last year as interest for ’green transport’ continues to grow.
And That Was The Week That Was, September 2nd – 8th 2019: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).