The Week That Was, May 22nd – 28th 2017   

Posted on 28. May, 2017 in: TWTW

Politics/Economy

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen vowed to strengthen the battle against terrorism after the ’cowardly, vile attack’ in Manchester, UK, where at least 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber Monday evening – he urged NATO to adopt a more active role in the battle with the Islamic State (ISIS).

Leaked documents seen by DR News and Jyllands-Posten revealed Denmark played a decisive role when Spanish jihadists dispatched 26 militant Islamists to join al-Qaeda insurgencies in Mali, Libya, and Spain.

The Danish People’s Party called for a Hungarian-style barbed-wire fence along Denmark’s border with Germany and ‘transit zones’ where asylum seekers can be detained while their applications are being processed.

Parties on the right came out in defence of Integration Minister Inger Støjberg in response to allegations she deliberately misinformed parliament about the legality of a decision to separate child brides.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen was forced to drop his plan to raise the retirement age after the Danish People’s Party (DPP) and Social Democrats (S) warned they would join forces again to defy the government – a majority of voters in a new poll said Danish People’s Party (DPP) leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl has more influence in parliament than the Prime Minister. Despite the growing alliance between the Danish People’s Party (DPP) and Social Democrats (S) a review of voting records showed both parties are more allied with the government than each other.

Opposition leader Mette Frederiksen would be prime minister if an election was held today – a new Voxmeter poll for Ritzau gave the centre-left alliance a slight 89-86 seat majority over the government coalition and its parliamentary backer, the Danish People’s Party (DPP),

The Economic Council of the Labour Movement (AE) predicted the labour market will expand by 260,000 people ahead of 2025, despite the government’s failure to raise the retirement age.

Retail sales climbed 0.3 percent month-over-month in April, following a 0.1 percent slight rise in March.

DI, the Confederation of Danish Industry,  expects the economic growth seen at the end of last year to continue in 2017 and 2018, creating around 50.000 jobs.

EU/Foreign Affairs

Israeli Prime Minister Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a personal phone call to his Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, expressing dissatisfaction with Denmark’s financial support for Palestinian organisations.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen defended Denmark’s contribution to NATO at a meeting of the western military alliance in Brussels – he acknowledged that Denmark could always do better but is a ‘core country’ in NATO that pulls its weight.

The EU wants all member nations – including Denmark –  to be using the euro by 2025, according to a leaked memo obtained by German newspaper Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung,

Greenland’s home rule government withdrew an official complaint at the United Nations (UN) alleging that Denmark is guilty of violating human-rights conventions for the failure to ensure that potential radioactive pollution left behind by the US military at the disused Camp Century base.

Denmark appointed its first ever digital ambassador, 43-year-old Casper Klynge, the current ambassador to Indonesia, who will be stationed in Silicon Valley, USA.

Denmark and other countries hoping to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and European Banking Authority after Brexit forces them to relocate from London were given a list of conditions by the EU regarding what potential host cities need to provide.

General Electric is the latest U.S. company to be investigated by Danish EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager – the industrial giant is suspected of supplying misleading information concerning its takeover of Danish LM Wind Power, a maker of wind-turbine blades, for €1.5bn ($1.7 bn).

To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)

Social Affairs:

The Danish People’s Party (DPP) called for a night-time curfew on asylum seekers to prevent them from committing crime – at the same time the party’s integration spokesman, Martin Henriksen, said any asylum seeker found guilty of crime should be detained and deported.

Speaker of the House Pia Kjærsgaard claimed Roma people have ‘hi-jacked’ the inner city of Copenhagen and should be forced to leave – she urged the local authorities to remove all Roma camps that have been set up throughout the city ‘where travellers live, eat, sleep, and even go to the toilet in the open air.’

3,316 refugees found work in this country last year, around 15% of all new arrivals and twice as many as in 2015, a new study showed.

Denmark was ranked 24th out of 195 countries in terms of access to healthcare by the British Lancet, the world’s leading independent general medical journal, but last in the Nordic region.

A 70-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in jail for ordering the sexual assaults of hundreds of Filipino children and young people online.

 Business:

Partially state-owned DONG Energy is selling its oil and gas exploration wing to Ineos AG for DKK8.7bn ($1.3bn) in order to refocus on green energy production.

The Dong-owned Burbo Bank Extension off the coast of Liverpool in north England, the world’s biggest windfarm powered by 32 giant Vestas wind turbines, is now supplying power to 230,000 English homes.

And That Was The Week That Was, May 22nd – 28th 2017 – To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)