The Week That Was, January 28th – February 3rd 2019
Politics/Economy:
A cross-party majority agreed to grant the Danish military DKK4.5bn more than agreed in last year’s defence bill, raising spending to 1.5 percent of GDP in 2023, up from the planned 1.35 percent – USA’s ambassador to Denmark, Carla H. Sands, dismissed the extra funding as ‘insufficient’.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s prospects for re-election are looking increasingly dire – a new Megafon poll showed the lowest level of support for his centre-right alliance during the current elective period. Voters still aren’t convinced about the two main candidates for prime minister –only 30% prefer Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen and 26% Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a new poll showed.
Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen was given a political ‘slap on the wrist’ for ignoring the recommendations of the Presidium (the supreme authority of the Danish Parliament) when he granted Copenhagen University researchers access to confidential war documents.
Labour Minister Troels Lund Poulsen dismissed the political debate about inequality as ‘misguided’ and ‘stupid’ – the Social Democrats and trade union movement are trying to make inequality a campaign issue by highlighting the growing gap between low income groups and the rest of society. Mr Lund Poulsen also called for more political supervision of ATP, Denmark’s biggest pension fund.
Food Minister Jacob Ellemann Jensen was accused of misleading parliament about the number of pigs that die on their way out of Denmark – more than 9 million pigs are exported every year but 9,000 are pronounced dead in ‘export pens’ before they even leave the country.
New National Bank figures showed the total amount of money in deposit accounts increased by DKK40bn ($6bn) in 2018 – a sign, according to Nykredit economist Mira Lie Nielsen, that saving has become fashionable.
The construction of a 70km (43-mile) fence along Denmark’s southern border to control the migration of wild boar received international coverage – the British Guardian reported that the United States isn’t the only country with a border wall controversy these days, while the Washington Post wrote the wall ‘could have come straight from the playbook of President Trump’.
EU/Foreign Affairs:
The latest Defence Intelligence (FE) evaluation warned Russia is the biggest threat to Denmark’s security right now.
After visiting the Ukraine port of Mariupol, Tuesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and his Czech counterpart, Tomáš Petříček, issued a joint statement urging Russia to halt its harassment of ships on their way to Ukrainian ports – the two ministers also called on the European Union to consider targeted measures against Russia if Moscow fails to release captured Ukrainian sailors. Ahead of the trip Mr Samuelsen accused Russia of showing ‘total contempt’ for international rules.
Following the controversy surrounding Chinese telecom giant Huawei’s role in Denmark’s upcoming 5G network, Berlingske reported how the Danish military has for the past two years purchased surveillance drones from a Chinese company blacklisted by the USA.
Denmark topped Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index even though the Danske Bank money laundering affair, the social fraud scandal, and the share-dividend tax scam have created negative headlines throughout the world.
Denmark’s EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager threatened to block a rail merger between France’s Alstom and Germany’s Siemens that would create the world’s second largest rail company.
The European Commission’s Annual Accident Report named Denmark as the safest country in Europe to drive, with only 5 crashes per 10,000 residents compared to 43.6 in Austria.
Danish national Dennis Christensen, who’s facing a lengthy prison sentence in Russia for being a member of the outlawed Jehova’s Witnesses, will hear his fate this week.
General Michael Lollesgaard is set to become the new head of the UN ceasefire-monitoring team in Yemen.
Social Affairs:
A Copenhagen court found Jakob Scharf, the former head of PET (Danish Intelligence), guilty of revealing insider secrets in his controversial 2016 whistleblower book, Seven Years With PET.
Some of the world’s most vulnerable UN ‘quota’ refugees risk being sent back to their own country under the government’s proposal for a ‘paradigm change’ in immigration policy.
An alleged Syrian child bride who’s suing the Danish Immigration Service for DKK50,000 told Copenhagen District Court, Monday, she had never been forced to marry her nine-year older husband.
Military prosecutors formally charged the Chief of Staff of the Danish army, Christian Mathiesen, with abuse of power after it was revealed he changed the admission rules for two attractive training programmes to enable his wife to be accepted to them.
Prince Joachim – the man who won’t be King – is moving his family to Paris where he’s been accepted at France’s highest ranking military training academy, École Militaire, whose alumni includes Napoleon Bonaparte.
The jobless rate continues to fall – the latest Statistics Denmark figures show 8,300 people found work last year, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.8%.
Around 14,500 north-Germany nationals commute every day to a job in Denmark, tempted by higher wages and shorter working hours.
To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)
Business:
The Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) cleared itself of any major mistakes in the Danske Bank money laundering scandal – the failure to accept any responsibility sparked off a war of words with its Estonian counterpart, Finantsinspektsioon, which said the FSA “was and is responsible for supervising the governance of Danske Bank, including its branches”.
The Danish Tax Authority (SKAT) lost its DKK308m (€41m) legal battle with U.S. tech giant Microsoft.
Nationwide emergency services company Falck was reported to the police for misusing its dominant market position to force Netherlands rival Bios out of the market.
Wind energy giant Vestas won a major order in Russia from a joint venture between local group Rusnano and Finnish utility Fortum Oyj.
Spar Nord, ‘Denmark’s most personal bank’ was forced to downwardly adjust profit expectations for the year following a major fraud case.
Toy giant LEGO announced plans to have around 140 shops in 30 different Chinese cities by the end of the year, up from 60 shops at present.
Copenhagen-based tech company Bluetown signed an agreement with US IT giant Microsoft to provide broadband internet access to approximately 800,000 people in the eastern part of Ghana.
The Danish retail sales index fell 0.4 percent in December from a year earlier.
More and more retail outlets are refusing to accept the national debitcard, Dankort, due to exorbitant fees.
And That Was The Week That Was, January 28th – February 3rd 2019: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).