The Week That Was, November 21st – November 27th 2016

Politics/Economy

The ‘government coalition in waiting’ was made official, Sunday, when the Liberal, Conservative, and Liberal Alliance leaders presented their joint political platform.

Although LA leader Anders Samuelsen has backed down from his ultimatum of a 5% cut in the marginal tax rate, the new government will continue to push for tax relief.  Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s long term 2025 economic plan has been consigned to the scrapheap – both Conservative leader Søren Pape Poulsen and Liberal Alliance leader Anders Samuelsen gave ‘2025’ the kiss of death during policy negotiations.

A new poll showed the DPP, the biggest party on the right, has lost 20% of its support in the wake of the EU fraud scandal and would win no more than 16.6% of the vote if an election was held today – although the government and its ‘blue bloc’ allies have reduced the opposition’s lead, a centre-left alliance would still return to power with a 93-82 seat majority.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen refused to appear before a parliamentary committee to explain why sensitive correspondence from Ban ki-Moon was kept secret.

The government suspended a program to receive around 500 refugees per year through the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – Integration Minister Inger Stojberg said the move would give local municipalities a little breathing space and room to better take care of those who are already here.

Denmark’s consumer confidence declined for the third consecutive month in November to the weakest level in almost three-and-a-half years, but was higher than expected.

The labour participation rate (LFS), the percentage of working-age persons in an economy who are unemployed, rose to 189,000 in the third quarter, an increase of 3,000 on Q2.

Foreign Affairs/EU

A number of Danish ministers, former ministers, and business specialists told the Financial Times that Denmark will take a hard line when it comes to Brexit talks with Britain.

Foreign aid will be reduced again next year as more expenditure is targeted towards refugees and asylum seekers in this country – the government has set aside 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) in the 2017 budget for development aid, around DKK15bn ($€2bn) or DKK210m (€27m) less than this year.

Japan and South Korea suspended all imports of poultry from Denmark after the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm north of Copenhagen.

Integration Minister Inger Støjberg dismissed criticism from the European Asylum Support Office’s (EASO) that Denmark has failed to do enough to help register asylum seekers in Greece.

The Chinese government postponed Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s planned visit to China at the start of December – according to ‘highly placed sources’ close to Jyllands-Posten, a similar visit in October was also cancelled at the last minute.

The latest Eurobarometer survey measuring public opinion in every member state showed 70% of the Danish electorate feel their ‘voice counts’ in the EU, nearly twice the EU average, putting Denmark in first place.

Greenland again threatened to bring Denmark before the UN over its inaction towards the potential radiation threat from a disbanded American military base – Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen called for clarification of the scientific and legal situation before approaching the USA.

German police arrested a potential terrorist as he attempted to cross the border into Denmark.

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

Social Affairs

The former editor of gossip magazine ‘See & Hear’ and three other Danish journalists were found guilty of paying for credit card information that enabled them to snoop on politicians, celebrities and royal family members.

The five alleged accomplices of terrorist Omar el-Hussein who were acquitted in September demanded up to DKK5m in compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

German police arrested a potential terrorist as he attempted to cross the border into Denmark.

Two people were injured when shots were fired in a sushi restaurant in Lyngby, north of Copenhagen – police believe the shooting could be part of the gang-war that’s plagued Denmark throughout November.

Copenhagen was crowned European City of the Year by The Academy of Urbanism.

Business

The Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), led by Maersk Oil, is demanding major tax concessions in the North Sea before the New Year – Maersk has threatened to shut down the main Tyra gas field in October 2018 if it can’t find a solution by the end of this year to make the ageing site profitable in the long term.

Food giant Danish Crown turned over DKK 60bn in the 2015/2106 financial year, giving a DKK1.6bn net profit, slightly less than last year – the cooperative’s revenue increased heavily in China, Japan and Sweden, but decreased in the UK.

Struggling SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) is exploring the possibility of relocating operations abroad in a move to reduce costs, but which could ignite a war with trade unions – analysts called it a last-ditch effort to rescue the company, which is under enormous pressure from cut-price competitors such as Norwegian and Ryanair.

Danish meat production is increasing but there’s been a significant decline in dairy output.

Employees of IKEA Denmark can look forward to a 130% Christmas bonus after the company published record profit for the year – turnover increased by 6.4% to DKK3.95bn ($56.4m).

A new report showed nearly a third of all cafes and restaurants in Denmark are under the threat of bankruptcy.

And That Was The Week That Was, November 21st – November 27th 2016: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)