The Week That Was, November 6th – November 12th 2017
Politics/Economy
The ruling Liberals moved into their strongest poll position since the 2015 general election.
The Supreme Court ruled the government acted correctly by forcing refugees to wait three years for residency by family reunification.
Former cabinet minister Bertel Haarder suggested that foreigners seeking Danish citizenship should be required to sign a ‘loyalty oath’ pledging allegiance to Denmark.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen vowed to do more to solve the street gang problem that has led to a spate of shootings and deaths in the capital this year.
A new study estimated the Danish state is losing around DKK 5bn (€660m) in revenue every year from money moved to offshore tax havens.
A former MP accused the Danish People’s Party (DPP) of acting like the Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir movement by calling for stricter restrictions on foreign nationals’ right to participate in local elections.
A local politician in Jutland was investigated by the police for alleged participation in sex parties.
EU/Foreign Affairs:
Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen warned that, as a member of NATO, Denmark would be forced to go to war if North Korea attacks the USA.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen urged France’s President Macron to look towards Denmark for inspiration for his labour reform initiatives.
The government is considering ignoring new OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) rules that disallow countries from classifying expenditure on refugees and asylum seekers in this country as foreign aid.
A new research report warned the Danish fishing sector could be hit hard by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union if it leads to restrictions in British waters.
Denmark’s foreign trade surplus increased in September, as exports rose and imports fell – the latest figures from Statistics Denmark, published Thursday, showed seasonally adjusted trade surplus rose to DKK 7.8 billion in September from DKK 6.2 billion in August.
Nearly 30,000 young foreign nationals have received more than DKK2bn (€266m) in student loans from the Danish state with little chance of the money ever being repaid – international students defaulted on DKK426m alone in 2016.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations confirmed Dr Carla Sands, qualified chiropractor, investment banker, and former actress as the new US ambassador to Denmark.
Copenhagen and Denmark’s ‘second city’, Aarhus, lost out to Paris in the race to become 2017’s European Capital of Innovation.
Social Affairs:
The Danish People’s Party (DPP) put forward a new proposal to stop doctors and other hospital staff from wearing long beards that, they claim, are a sign of ‘religious indoctrination’ – the DPP continues to block legislation that would provide citizenship for more than 3,000 immigrants ‘as refugees should be required to return home’.
A new global study showed Danes are the world’s third-best non-native English speakers, down from second place last year.
Mayor of Copenhagen Frank Jensen fired off an angry letter to Integration Minister Inger Støjberg demanding help to solve the ‘brutal’ problems caused by drug addicts, criminals and homeless around the meat-packing district in the inner-city district of Vesterbro.
Inger Støjberg’s car hit a refugee woman on Friday when the integration minster was forced to flee from a deportation center for rejected asylum seekers.
A local imam in Skive was given a suspended jail sentence for publicly equating homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality.
Denmark has climbed to 14th on this year’s Global Gender Gap Index, an annual survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
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Business:
The business sector called for a cap on academic education following new figures showing 43% of today’s crop of 18-year-olds will have attended university by the time they are 40 years of age.
16 out of 17 Danish pension funds, who administrate billions of savings, admitted to placing their money, legally, in offshore tax havens. ATP, Denmark’s biggest pension fund, warned it would be ‘very expensive’ for Danish pension savers if it was forced to pull out of the Cayman Islands where DKK11.7bn (€1.5bn) has been invested in 21 different companies. One of Denmark’s biggest pension funds, Sampension, promised greater focus on corporate tax transparency as part of its overall investment strategy.
Maersk Line posted a net profit of $220 million in the third quarter of 2017, despite suffering a vicious cyber-attack, compared with a loss of $122 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2016. China’s commerce ministry granted conditional approval for Maersk Line’s planned acquisition of Hamburg Sud.
Both earnings and revenue fell at Vestas during the third quarter of 2017.
Industrial production dropped a seasonally adjusted 4.2 percent month-over-month in September, reversing a 2.9 percent rise in August.
And That Was The Week That Was, November 6th – November 12th 2017: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)