The Week That Was, August 29th – September 3rd 2016
Politics/Economy
The government published its much-anticipated 2025 economic stimulus plan, Tuesday, touching on all areas of the economy with moves to boost growth, create jobs and limit welfare entitlements.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he’s ready for a snap election if he can’t put together majority support for the plan – Liberal Alliance leader Anders Samuelsen raised the stakes by maintaining his demand for a 5 percentage point cut in the punitive top rate of income tax. Danish People’s Party leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl warned in a TV interview that if the Liberal Alliance (LA) refuses to back down on its demand then an election could be the only solution.
In an interview with weekly newsletter A4, Mr Kristian Thulesen promoted a ‘third way’ in Danish politics instead of the traditional ‘red/blue’ breakdown along party lines – a close centrist alliance between his own party, the Social Democrats, and the ruling Liberals.
The government lowered its growth projection for both this year and next, citing an economy struggling to cope with an international slowdown and the prospect of slightly slower growth in Europe in 2017 due to Brexit. However, the economy grew for a second consecutive quarter in the three month April to June period, albeit at a slower pace – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent from the first quarter, when the economy expanded 0.7 percent.
The government will stop subsididing off-shore wind turbines along Denmark’s coastline in its 2025 long-term economic plan – Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said there are cheaper ways of obtaining sustainable energy.
Foreign Affairs/EU
The government is planning to give Danish diplomacy a worldwide ‘facelift’ with an extra DKK 35m next year, rising to DKK 70m annually after 2018 – Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said the build-up would be used to deal with the challenges posed by Britain’s exit from the EU, migration, terrorism, and to give Danish diplomacy a much-needed boost so it can open doors for Danish companies
The six members of parliament’s Immigration and Integration Affairs Committee heading for a fact-finding trip to the controversial offshore detention centre for asylum-seekers on the island of Nauru cancelled the visit after three members of the delegation were refused visas.
Ahead of negotiations surrounding Great Britain’s impending departure from the EU, the government suggested the country shouldn’t be allowed to stop paying toward European Union projects that were started while it was a member.
A new poll showed two thirds of the Danish electorate believe the EU should stop accession negotiations with Turkey completely due to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ‘undemocratic initiatives’ and his support for reintroducing the death penalty.
A Danish-led international operation to rid Libya of its chemical weapons has removed 500 tons of chemicals from the North African country.
Denmark is planning to use drones to boost its claim to a vast area of the Arctic Ocean, including the North Pole, also contested by Russia, Norway, Canada, and the USA.
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Social Affairs
A police officer was shot in the head at the ‘hippy state’ of Christiania in Copenhagen, Wednesday. Another police officer was shot in the leg and a tourist was also hit as gunfire erupted during a routine arrest – the alleged shooter later died after a shootout with the police. Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the brutal shooting a ‘despicable and disgusting’ act that should serve as a wake-up call to law-abiding residents of the ‘free state’ and provoked a unanimous reaction from political parties: It’s time to stop the illegal cannabis trade in Christiania – and the organised crime behind it – once and for all.
Despite plummeting immigration figures the government proposed a Norwegian-inspired ‘emergency brake’, which would allow the border to be sealed off if the Danish border if the influx of asylum-seekers suddenly escalates.
A local Liberal Party constituency chairman in Assens was revealed to be one of thousands found guilty of social fraud – Carsten Petersen, a prominent critic of opposition leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen during the expense account scandal two years ago, earned DKK100,000 selling insurance while claiming unemployment benefits.
Business
Novo Nordisk, Denmark’s most profitable company, announced long-serving CEO Lars Rebien Sorensen is to step down, at a time when the world’s largest insulin maker has said it faces increased competition in the U.S. market where it generates about half its revenues.
Maersk’s ports and harbours division, APM Terminals, announced plans to invest DKK466m ($70m) into its US-based Port Elizabeth terminal, which would enable the port to receive increased loads arriving from larger vessels travelling via the Panama Canal.
Jutland-based BAE Systems Applied Intelligence A/S has been given the green light to supply the United Arab Emirates with hi-tech surveillance equipment even though the regime is notorious for persecuting, jailing, and even torturing dissidents.
And that was The Week That Was, August 29th – September 3rd 2016 – To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)