The Week That Was, April 3rd – April 8th, 2018
Politics/Economy:
Liberal Alliance (LA) leader Anders Samuelsen said it’s ‘unlikely’ the government will be able to live up to its goal of getting an extra 55,000 – 60,000 into the labour market and increasing growth by DKK80bn (€10.6bn) ahead of 2025.
The government and Social Democrats finally reached agreement on the main points of the ‘ban the burka’ bill, securing the proposed legislation a parliamentary majority.
The government presented a wide ranging media bill, Thursday, including plans to scrap the contentious TV and radio licence fee and a 20 percent budget cut for state-owned broadcaster DR.
A cross-party majority demanded answers from Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen as to why Danish Intelligence (PET) continued to store sensitive personal data in a secret database long after it should have been deleted.
Health Minister Ellen Trane Nørby dismissed the National Auditors’ criticism of the state’s controversial sale of the National Serum Institute to the Saudi Aljomaih Group for only DKK15m ($2.5m) following an Ekstra Bladet report that the previous Social Democrat-led government estimated the market price of the institute at DKK285m – DKK270m over the final price
EU/Foreign Affairs:
Russia expelled two Danish diplomats in a tit-for-tat retaliation for the two Russians expelled by Denmark the previous week – Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen characterised the Russian navy’s missile tests in the Baltic Sea close to the Danish island of Bornholm that got underway, Wednesday, as a ‘demonstration of force’ and ‘extremely provocative.’
The Danish People’s Party (DPP) distanced itself from calls for ‘official Denmark’ – cabinet ministers and members of the royal family – to boycott the World Cup after Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen declined to offer any guarantee that Denmark will participate because of Russia’s failure to fully address the nerve gas attack in the UK.
The Prime Minister questioned the logic of U.S. trade policy, saying the security reasons given by the White House for imposing tariffs on Europe make ‘no sense’.
The EU has become more popular amongst Danish voters since Britain voted to leave the union – a new Epinion poll indicated a comfortable victory for the ‘remain’ side if a membership referendum was held today.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen signalled a further thaw in frosty Denmark-Indian relations by announcing he will attend a Nordic-India summit in Stockholm on April 17th.
The Iranian news agency Mehr reported how trade between Iran and Denmark is close to $400m following recent business initiatives between the two countries.
Denmark donated a further DKK70m ($11.5m) to Yemen, currently facing the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in the world.
Finland gave approval for the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 through Finland’s economic zone – the gas pipeline is planned to run through Danish territorial waters south of Bornholm to Germany but has yet to win approval in this country.
Denmark’s biggest ever space project, the climate observatory ASIM (Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor) successfully arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) and started the docking process.
Denmark acknowledged its dark colonial past with the first-ever black statue – two artists unveiled a 7-metre tall statue, close to Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, that portrays Mary Thomas, a 19th-century rebel queen who led a fiery revolt against Danish colonial rule in the Caribbean.
Social Affairs:
Facebook warned that 41.820 Danish users could have had their private data compromised by Cambridge Analytica, the controversial analysis firm heavily implicated in influencing voters in the 2016 US election campaign.
Denmark was ranked a lowly 60th on the Most Welcoming countries for Expats list, after Saudi Arabia but above Finland, with Portugal leading the way.
According to the latest police figures there are nearly 1,000 failed asylum seekers who remain in Denmark even though they have been denied residency – over half of them are, according to the police, are ‘stuck here’ due to EU or international regulations.
The Danish People’s Party (DPP) called for legislation banning internet forums where people discuss their sex fantasies about children, following reports that more than 200 Danes are members of a hidden web network for paedophiles.
Although nearly 60% of respondents in a new Epinion survey said Denmark should copy Norway where a packet of cigarettes costs DKK90, Tax Minister Karsten Lauritzen (V) rejected any price increase that ‘would only lead to more cross border trade in Germany’.
Copenhagen District Court heard how Peter Madsen, the ‘Submarine Slayer’, displayed no emotion in interviews with forensic psychiatrists when discussing how he dismembered the body of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall.
Around 1,200 ex-Uber drivers were told by SKAT to cough up a collective DKK 11.3m (nearly $2m) in back taxes dating back to 2014.
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Business:
The Danish Tax Authority (SKAT) lost a High Court battle with Microsoft – SKAT had demanded the U.S. IT giant pay DKK308m (€41m) in extra taxes for 2004-2007.
The head of Danske Bank’s Baltic operations, Lars Mørch, resigned amid rumours he was about to be fired for his role in the money laundering scandal and financial law violations in Estonia.
Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk secured the global licence for U.S. biotech company EpiDestiny’s sickle cell disease (SCD) programme in a DKK240m ($400m) deal.
DAT-Schaub, part of global meat processing company Danish Crown, purchased a majority stake in Shanghai Natural Casing for an undisclosed price to expand its operations in China.
The Scandinavian Tobacco Group completed the $62 million purchase of Thompson and Co. of Tampa, Florida, the oldest mail order cigar company in the United States.
Cruise ships are heading for Denmark in record numbers – more than 1,1 million cruise passengers are expected to visit Danish ports this year, providing a projected €200m revenue.
Copenhagen’s traditional red-light district of Vesterbro was named by the Thrillist travel site as one of the ‘coolest neighbourhoods in Europe that tourists don’t know about’.
And That Was The Week That Was, April 3rd – April 8th, 2018: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).