The Year That Was – The main news events in Denmark, 2017

2017 ended with the government in disarray after failing to agree tax and immigration reform with the Danish People’s Party (DPP) – two issues that dominated the political agenda throughout the year.

Here’s what made the news during the first six months of 2017: (Last six months tomorrow).

January:

Integration Minister Inger Støjberg, who dominated the headlines in 2017, told Muslims: ‘This is Denmark and you need to respect our way of living.’ She said border control had been ‘well worth the expense’ after Justice Ministry figures showed 12 months of control cost more than DKK200m ($32m) and thousands of police hours

Denmark launched an anti-corruption programme in Ukraine – Denmark was ranked the world’s least corrupt country by Transparency International (TI) but received low marks in a global report on financial transparency.

Outgoing US Ambassador Rufus Gifford stirred up a controversy by claiming some Danish politicians are worse on immigration than Donald Trump. Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the USA remains Denmark’s closest ally but admitted ‘certain things’ are happening that are completely different to ‘anything we’ve experienced before’.

Denmark’s biggest bank, Danske, warned that Brexit and the election of Donald Trump could disrupt the traditional economic and global alliances that have existed since World War 2, bring Russia in from the cold, and severely reduce the EU’s power. Facebook announced plans to build a 56,500 square meter data centre near Odense in central Denmark – the city sold the industrial piece of land for DKK 68m($10m).

February:

The government, backed by the Danish People’s Party (DPP), passed a parliamentary motion suggesting that immigrants and their descendants who have become Danish citizens aren’t really Danes. Integration Minister Inger Støjberg vowed to get thousands of refugees into the labour market after new figures revealed  over half of the new arrivals are now classified as ‘able to work’, compared to just 3% two years ago.

Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said  President Trump’s values are ‘totally alien to what the Danish government, and the Liberal Alliance, represent’, even though a comparison of Denmark’s visa programme with Mr Trump’s proposed immigration ban revealed marked similarities.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that Denmark cannot shirk its commitment to spending 2% of GDP on defence.

Questions were asked as to why the government sold the National Serum Institute to the Aljomaih Group, which is owned by a Saudi family dynasty with alleged extremist links.

DONG Energy announced it will pull coal from all of its power stations by 2023, leaving only two coal-fired power plants in Denmark.

Maersk Line, the world’s biggest freight carrier, and four other global shippers were fined around DKK85m by the the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for operating an unlawful cartel.

A new pan-Nordic study of diet, physical activity, obesity and ‘lifestyle choices’ showed Denmark holds the unfortunate record of having the highest rate of smoking and drinking in the Nordic region – and, subsequently, the lowest life expectancy.

March:

An image of Integration Minister Inger Støjberg posing with a large, birthday-like cake adorned with the Danish flag to mark the 50th time the government has tightened immigration legislation was dismissed as ’distasteful’ – the respected German newspaper Bild characterised Ms Støjberg as a ‘female Trump’ and compared her to France’s Marine Le Pen and Holland’s Geert Wilders.

Ahead of a meeting with President Trump in Washington, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen acknowledged that the current US government ‘works in a different way than what we have seen previously’.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Denmark to live up to its promise to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence spending

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he would support moves to tighten financial legislation following reports that Denmark’s two biggest banks, Danske and Nordea, were involved in a vast money-laundering operation run by Russian criminals.

The Foreign Ministry asked the Turkey’s embassy to explain reports of anti-Ergodan voters being reported for treason.

Parliament’s Ombudsman ruled the government acted illegally by separating ‘child brides’, some as young as 14 years of age, from their male spouses at refugee and asylum centres.

A new social study showed more than 3,000 immigrants have been stuck on welfare for over a decade – and out of 900 people who’ve been claiming social benefits for 20 years, 400 are from ‘non-western’ countries. A report by Statistics Denmark showed one-in five babies in this country is born to parents from an ethnic minority.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) was one of eleven carriers hit with a €776m fine by the EU Competition Commission, led by Danish commissioner Margrethe Vestager, for taking part in an air cargo cartel more than a decade ago.

Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, threatened to fight Denmark to the ‘bitter end’ in the legal dispute surrounding the government’s decision to buy Lockheed Martin’s new F-35 Lightning II combat jets in preference to its own Super Hornets.

April:

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the Stockholm terror attack a ‘cowardly attempt to intimidate us and our peaceful way of life in Scandinavia’.

The government offered unconditional support for a U.S. bombing raid on Syria – Mr Løkke Rasmussen said it’s good to see an American president ‘back words with action’, while Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said he was ‘100%’ behind the American attack.

During a state visit Ukraine President Petro Porosjenko said Denmark isn’t a small country but a great nation which understands very clearly that a secure Ukraine means a secure Europe – prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen responded by saying Russia’s actions in eastern Ukraine are ‘unacceptable’.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, accompanied by President Enrique Peña Nieto, officially inaugurated A.P. Moeller-Maersk’s new state of the art terminal at Lázaro Cárdenas on Mexico’s west coast.

A Defence Intelligence (FE) report claiming a state-sponsored Russian group hacked Danish military computer servers for more than two years was immediately dismissed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said ‘Russia as a state does not do hacking attacks’ – opposition parties questioned Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen’s reluctance to raise the hacking affair with Russia.

The government  warned it will challenge British plans to ‘take back control’ of its waters after leaving the EU – Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said Danish fishermen have a historical right to access to the seas around Britain dating back to the 1400s.

May:

The long-negotiated Europol compromise was finally confirmed – after signing the ‘Europol light’ deal Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he was pleased that Denmark will still be allowed to share information vital to counter-terrorism and crime fighting.

Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said the 200 Danish soldiers who will be deployed in Estonia from the start of 2018 as part of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) will receive training beforehand about how to deal with Russian fake news and disinformation.

During a visit to Israel, Foreign Minister Ander Samuelsen offered support for the ‘two-state solution’ but acknowledged that the country is in a ‘very difficult security situation’ – Israeli Prime Minister Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a personal phone call to Lars Løkke Rasmussen expressing dissatisfaction with Denmark’s financial support for Palestinian organisations.

Mr Samuelsen said Denmark will again help to protect the sovereignty of Baltic countries’ airspace from the start of 2018 with a detachment of 4 F-16 fighter jets and 60 accompanying personnel.

The U.S. warned Denmark not to allow the controversial Russian pipeline Nordstram2 pass through Danish territorial waters.

The majority of Danish politicians publicly congratulated French President-elect Emmanuel Macron for his election victory but he was dismissed as a ‘little gay boy’ by former Danish People’s Party (DPP) MP and vicar Søren Krarup.

Leaked documents revealed Denmark played a decisive role when Spanish jihadists dispatched 26 militant Islamists to join al-Qaeda insurgencies in Mali, Libya, and Spain.

Prince Henrik sparked off a media storm by stating he doesn’t want to be buried alongside his wife of 50 years, Queen Margrethe, in the Danish monarchy’s traditional resting place, Roskilde Cathedral

The Danish People’s Party called for a Hungarian-style barbed-wire fence along Denmark’s border with Germany and ‘transit zones’ where asylum seekers can be detained while their applications are being processed – Denmark was ranked third on a table of 26 EU countries in terms of how political parties have achieved electoral success by employing xenophobic/racist policies. A demographics study projected that by 2060 one-fifth of the Danish population will be an immigrant or descendant of an immigrant

As the first country in the world, Denmark banned named ‘hate preachers’ from entering the country.

Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipping company, paid  €3.7 billion (S$5.6 billion) to acquire its smaller German rival, Hamburg Sud.

June:

The government announced a new foreign and security policy strategy for the 2017-2018 period focusing on 5 main themes:  Migration and terrorism, regional security, globalisation, the Arctic, and the EU’s future after Brexit. Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said he’s confident the USA will come to the aid of NATO allies that are attacked, after President Trump raised doubts over whether he would come to the defence of other members of the military pact who are not spending enough

France’s President Macron praised Denmark as a ‘role model’ for labour market reforms during a press conference alongside Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen at the Elysée Palace in Paris. After Mr Løkke Rasmussen criticised President Trump for the pulling the United States from the Paris climate accord, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said it’s ‘great to have a president who is more concerned with Des Moines than Denmark’.

The Danish People’s Party (DPP) demanded a guarantee from the Social Democrats they won’t ease up on Denmark’s strict immigration policy during the next elective period if they regain power.

It was revealed that the Danish authorities have approved the sale of cyber-surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes in the Middle East – under confidential agreements Denmark has exported enough technology to keep the whole populations of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar under surveillance.

Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen froze DKK50m in Danish aid funding for 24 Palestinian and pro-Palestinian NGOs.

Copenhagen Police cleared out Roma camps throughout the capital – eight people were arrested, of whom seven were ‘known to the police’ and are facing deportation.

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