The Week That Was, January 27th – February 4th 2018
Politics/Economy:
During a two-hour parliamentary consultation about his links to fishing industry ‘quota kings’, Wednesday, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen defended his right to a ‘private life’ and questioned the hearing’s right to information regarding personal matters – however, experts claimed he’s mixed work for his charitable Løkke Foundation with official duties on a number of occasions. A retired civil servant reported the Prime Minister to the police for violating section 144 of the criminal code, better known as the bribery law, which states it’s a criminal offence if a public sector employee unlawfully accepts a gift. Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen dismissed accusations by the Danish People’s Party’s (DPP) fisheries spokesman, Ib Poulsen, that fishing quota kings’ have ‘been allowed to buy influence with the government.’
In an interview with Bloomberg News the PM said he ‘didn’t really like the signal’ sent by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week who appeared to support a weaker dollar.
Following the premiere of the musical The Book of Mormon in Copenhagen, a satirical take on the Mormon religion, Integration Minister Støjberg claimed it would be impossible to make fun of Muslims in the same way because Denmark has been ‘scared into silence’ by a ‘bunch of violent Islamists’.
A new Tax Ministry report showed that although consecutive governments since 1996 have lowered the corporate tax rate the overall amount of tax paid by companies is virtually the same today as it was twenty years ago – the report also showed ten companies alone paid more than a third of all corporate tax revenue collected by the state in 2016.
EU/Foreign Affairs:
Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Mikhail Valentinovich Vanin, said using the Russian threat to justify a massive increase in defence spending is ’pure surrealism’, after a cross party majority allocated an extra DKK12bn ($2bn) over the next six years in the biggest military buildup since the Cold War – Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said the extra funding would allow Denmark to keep playing an ‘important, operative within NATO, the UN, and international coalitions.’ The new defence bill was high on the agenda during Mr Samuelsen’s meeting with U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington DC, Monday.
Israel’s deputy ambassador to Denmark, Eyal Lampert, urged left-leaning daily Politiken to ‘check its facts’ following a highly critical article about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Russia’s Nordstream2 project moved a step closer to reality after the German authorities granted a construction and operation permit for the planned pipeline through Germany’s territorial waters – Denmark has passed a law that allows the government to prohibit the construction of the project via its territorial waters if there are security concerns.
Some of Denmark’s biggest aid organisations asked Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen to explain why he halted aid funding to 14 Palestinian organisations with alleged links to terrorism.
Denmark became the first European country to enter into a partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF), covering a number of areas including green growth, technology and innovation, trade and investment, education, gender. and work.
The EU accused Denmark of breaking the rules by demanding contract offsets when purchasing tanks and armoured vehicles for the Danish military.
Thousands of foreign nationals who’ve been refused residency in Denmark could have their cases re-evaluated after the High Court asked the EU for an assessment as to whether Turks have for years illegally been denied family reunification.
Danish dairy firms allegedly broke EU law by selling cheese marked as “feta” – the European Commission submitted a formal request to the Danish government to stop the practice of selling the cheese to countries outside the European Single Market.
Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost reported that former Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is under consideration for a seat on the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize committee.
Social Affairs:
A Syrian couple who fell foul of Integration Minister Inger Støjberg’s ‘child-bride’ ruling in 2016 and were forced to live apart in separate refugee shelters as the wife was only 17 years of age, a minor under Danish law, sued the government for financial compensation.
The government is hoping to ease the rules for skilled workers after it was revealed that a number of foreign academics have been fined and threatened with deportation for taking on a secondary job not covered by the terms of their visa.
A new international comparison by the British Lancet showed that for most cancers Denmark is closing the survival gap with the other Nordic countries after lagging behind for years. A new report by the Swedish-based Health Consumer Powerhouse showed Denmark has the 3rd-best health sector in Europe.
A kindergarten at the centre of a child abuse scandal was burned to the ground in a suspected arson attack.
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Business:
The National Roads Authority (Vejdirektoratet) was given the political go-ahead to sign a contract with the Italian consortium that won the tender to build the new Storstrøm Bridge that will connect Zealand with Falster, one of Denmark’s biggest infrastructure projects right now.
Electric car sales have fallen dramatically in this country since the government withdrew an attractive tax incentive for prospective new owners – according to the association of car owners, FDM, the electric car market share of the year was only 0.3% in 2017, half of what it was in 2016.
And That Was The Week That Was, January 27th – February 4th 2018: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)