The Week That Was, November 7th – November 13th 2016

Politics/Economy

US Ambassador Rufus Gifford said the election of Donald Trump won’t drastically change the relationship between the USA and Denmark, which is based on ‘mutual trust’. Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen congratulated Mr Trump on his victory but urged him to ‘stop being confrontational’ and become an ‘open and constructive president’ – the Social Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesman, Nick Hækkerup, said there are ‘good reasons to feel insecure’ after Trump’s victory, while his former party leader, Mogens Lykketoft (S), characterised the outcome of the election as ‘scary and depressing’. The Socialist People’s Party’s ex-foreign minister, Holger K. Nielsen, dismissed the President-elect as a ‘misguided missile’ and a ‘nightmare who’s become a reality’.

Ex-Danish prime minister and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO has become weaker after Donald Trump’s victory and he’s ‘extremely concerned’ that the new president will push through what he promised during the election campaign, such as threatening not to come to NATO allies’ defence. Nordea, the Nordic region’s biggest bank, warned Mr Trump’s protectionist policies could cost 10,000 jobs in this country.

Danish military leadership warned that Denmark’s armed forces are seriously lacking manpower, after President-elect Donald Trump’s warning that he will be demanding more from the USA’s NATO allies – Defence Minister Peter Christensen said the government is aiming to increase defence spending but not just because of Mr Trump.

Lieutenant General Bjørn Bisserup was appointed Denmark’s new Chief of Defence.

A YouGov international poll showed that only 4% of the Danish public wanted to see the business mogul win the US election, the highest negative rating of 19 countries, compared to 81% for his rival, Hillary Clinton.

Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen warned the government is heading for a snap election unless parties on the right come together on a deal for the 2017 budget – the Danish People’s Party (DPP) said it has no intention of backing down in the dispute with centre-right ally, the Liberal Alliance, over the five percent cut in the marginal tax rate.

The government will appoint a Task Force with the aim of paving the way for changes in the European Human Rights Convention ahead of Denmark’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union next year, to push for amendments to Denmark’s obligations.

A new poll showed opposition leader Mette Frederiksen would become prime minister and the Danish People’s Party would lose around 20% of its support if an election was held right now.

E-mails obtained by Information under the freedom of information law indicated the Ministry of State willfully suppressed a letter sent by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon urging Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to drop the controversial jewellery law.

93 leading economists on Berlingske’s Business Panel predicted 50 ‘golden years’ of sustained economic growth are coming to an end – the per capita growth over the next decade will be less than 1% per year, at least 0.6% percentage points under the 1.53% average enjoyed since 1966, they said.

Foreign Affairs/EU

Turkey’s ambassador to Denmark, Mehmet Dönnez, was summoned to the Danish Ministry 0f Foreign Affairs to explain the recent mass arrests in his country, including 11 members of the pro-Kurdish HDP party.

Former Danish People’s Party MEP Rikke Karlsson was questioned for 11 hours in Brussels, Wednesday, by OLAF (the EU’s anti-fraud unit) regarding the party’s alleged misappropriation of EU subsidies.

The Danish People’s Party (DPP) urged the government to copy a German proposal to replicate Australian’s controversial refugee policy.

Denmark and its four Nordic neighbours – Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, who form NORDEFCO (Nordic Defence Cooperation) –  signed an agreement that will provide easy military access to each other’s territories in peacetime.’

Spanish footballing giant Real Madrid repaid DKK 150m (€20m) to Madrid city council  after a legal action brought by Danish EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager,

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Social Affairs

A new study by ThinkTank Europe showed more than 40% of all foreign students from countries such as Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland, who claim generous Danish student grants (SU), leave Denmark as soon as they’ve finished their studies.

Consumer prices increased in October after remaining flat in the previous month – the consumer price index rose 0.3 percent year-over-year in October.

A tax ministry report showed the public’s collective debt to the state and local authorities has risen by a massive DKK 19.3bn (€2.6bn) over the past year and now stands at DKK91.7bn (€12bn).

The public prosecutor declined to charge an elderly Dane accused of being involved in the mass murder of Jews in Belarus – Chief Prosecutor Steen Bechmann Jacobsen said the investigation had been ‘very thorough’ but had found no evidence that 91-year-old Helmuth Leif Rasmussen committed or took part in the killings.

Business

Novo Nordisk, the world’s biggest maker of insulin, is helping the Danish government to promote Copenhagen as a possible host for the European Medicines Agency (EMA), currently based in London but likely to relocate when the UK leaves the EU.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Saunders requested the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission open investigations into “potential coordination” by Novo Nordisk in raising insulin prices in collusion with Eli Lilly and Sanofi – the company spent $3m opposing a political campaign in California, ‘Proposition 61’, aimed at price-capping prescription drugs.

Danish Crown, the world’s largest pork exporter, is to open a DKK300m processing and retail product facility in Shanghai, China, to deal with increasing demand.

Partially state-owned DONG Energy, the world’s biggest operator of offshore wind power, announced plans to shed its oil and gas business.

More than 22.1 million passengers passed through Copenhagen Airport during the first nine months of the year, an increase of 9.9% on the same period of 2015.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is close to losing its position as Scandinavia’s biggest airline to aggressive cut-price rival Norwegian Air – 29,009 million passengers have flown with SAS over the past 12 months, only 378,000 more than Norwegian who are enjoying annual growth of 13% compared to SAS’ 3.3%. SAS enjoyed it’s best October ever, carrying 2.7 million scheduled passengers, but the ‘yield’ – measure of average fare paid per mile, per passenger – dropped by 10% as fares fell.

Global mining and cement company, FLSmidth signed a contract worth more than $200 million with Iraq Cement to supply a total of 6,000 tonnes of cement per day to the production line for the Al Muthana region.

Brewing giant Carlsberg raised its 2016 earnings forecast, buoyed by cost cuts and stronger demand in its ‘Achilles heel’ of Eastern Europe.

Wind energy giant Vestas upgraded its guidance for 2016 after posting Q3 results that exceeded expectation – revenue rose by 37% to €2.9bn compared with 12 months ago. The company received a 48 MW order placed by long-time customer CGN Wind Energy Limited for a project in southern China.

A new report showed small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are enjoying success in the USA – after years of stagnation, SMB exports to the American market have risen by 60% since 2010.

Swedish energy company Vattenfall won a tender to build Denmark’s biggest offshore wind farm, but still faces the potential cancellation of a separate wind project in the country.

And That Was The Week That Was, November 7th – November 13th 2016: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)