The Week That Was, September 3rd – 9th 2018

Politics/Economy

The ruling Liberals kick-started their election campaign with full-page newspaper adverts proclaiming themselves as ‘the party of welfare’ – the right-leaning think tank CEPOS called it the ‘wrong strategy’ and a long way from the Liberals’ previous call for zero-public sector growth.

Despite constant reports of ‘chaos’ and division on the left, a new poll indicated the opposition is heading for a comfortable victory at the next election that is required to be held before June ’19.

The far-right New Conservatives warned they won’t back down from their three non-negotiable demands to Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen if they gain parliamentary representation at the next election: Zero asylum seekers, deportation for criminal foreigners, and all immigrants to be self-sufficient.

Danish People’s Party (DPP) leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl declined to rule out the possibility of allowing the Social Democrats to come to power after the next election.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Innovation Minister Sophie Løhde presented the government’s ‘debureaucratisation’ reform bill, aimed at reducing ‘red-tape’ with fewer rules, less bureaucracy, and more focus on the individual.

Opposition leader Mette Frederiksen was accused of reneging on her agreement with the government and Danish People’s Party (DPP) by refusing to support a controversial bill that would legally require immigrants to shake hands when formally accepting citizenship – a number of Liberal mayors defied their own party line by vowing to defy any directive about forcing Muslim women to shake hands.

The government awarded Danish Intelligence (PET) DKK 172m in its draft budget to resist election interference from foreign powers – Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen said the overall threat is greater than at any period since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The National Bank refused to acknowledge the Swedish economy is outperforming the Danish, despite figures showing Sweden has enjoyed twice as much economic growth over the past seven years.

EU/Foreign Affairs:

German media reported how Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s appearance at the anti-migrant Christian Social Union’s (CSU) two-day summit in the town of Neuhardenberg outside Berlin ‘set the alarm bells ringing’ at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office – ahead of his visit the PM dismissed the need for a ‘German-type’ limit on refugees seeking residency by family reunification.

The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) urged companies to have a ‘Plan B’ ready if Great Britain leaves the EU with no deal.

Denmark’s foreign currency reserves remained unchanged in August at DKK468bn as the National Bank felt there was need to intervene in exchange markets.

A local baker, fisherman, and a third plaintiff from southern Iraq demanded DKK50,000 each in compensation from the Defence Ministry for being arrested by Danish troops 12 years ago.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford failed in his bid to become a US congressman.

Social Affairs:

The Social Democrats intend to test the limits of the stateless convention if they regain power at the next election – spokeswoman Astrid Krag said Denmark should copy Norway where stateless applicants are forced to wait for years if they’ve served a prison sentence.

The cost of policing anti-Muslim demonstrations sparked off a debate after Rasmus Paludan, head of the nationalist ‘Stram Kurs’ (Firm Direction) party, appeared at the Agervang social housing complex in Holbæk.

Copenhagen Police banned the immigrant street gang Loyal to Familia (LTF) until an official government application to outlaw the gang is heard by a court.

A long-serving police officer who admitted stealing expensive designer lamps from police headquarters in Copenhagen withdrew his guilty plea – he told Copenhagen District Court, Thursday, he only made the false confession because he was under ‘severe mental pressure’.

A prominent Danish writer came under fire from lawmakers for criticising Denmark’s immigration policy in a Swedish newspaper – under the heading ‘Learn from us – don’t bow down to the Sweden Democrats’, Carsten Jensen urged Swedish parties not to go down the route followed by an overwhelming majority of their Danish counterparts who’ve copied the anti-migrant Danish People’s Party (DPP.

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Business:

Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche, inadvertently helped to stop billions being laundered through Danske Bank five years ago when it started to reject individual dollar transactions passing through Danske’s Estonian branch.

Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov said the group of parties currently negotiating stricter laws to prevent a repeat of the Danske Bank scandal are determined to make Danish anti-money laundering regulation ‘one of the toughest in Europe’.

Danske Bank shareholders took a collective DKK10.5bn ‘bath’, Tuesday, following new revelations in the money laundering scandal – shares fell by 6.2% and have now dropped by 26.2% since the start of the year. The Bank declined to confirm a report published by the British Financial Times that as many as 80,000 Russian or ex-Soviet transactions, totalling around DKK192bn ($30bn), flowed through the bank’s Estonian branch in a single year.

LEGO announced plans to make all its colourful building blocks from sustainable materials, such as sugar cane, by 2030, part of a global effort to fight plastic pollution.

Partially state-owned energy company Ørsted, formerly DONG, inaugurated the world’s largest working offshore wind farm off the north west coast of England.

Brewing giant Carlsberg said it will begin gluing together beers in its packaging in order to reduce plastic waste, part of its campaign to ‘woo environmentally conscious millennial consumers’ – the brewing giant also announced plans to invest DKK750m (€100m) in its Kronenbourg renewable brewery in Obernai, France.

Shipping giant Maersk turned back the clock in a move to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by fitting one of its tankers with two 30-metre-tall sails.

Furniture and home decorations retailer JYSK announced plans to open 100 stores in Romania by 2020.

Arla Foods, an international dairy cooperative based in Viby, is to build a new DKK 270m (€36m) innovation centre in Denmark.

New car sales rose by 35% in August compared to the same month last year as nearly 21,000 cars were driven out of showrooms, the highest figure ever for the month of August.

And That Was The Week That Was, September 3rd – 9th 2018: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).