The Week That Was, June 8th – 14th 2020:

Coronavirus/ What happened last week:

The prime minister made it very clear it was the government alone that made the decision to close Denmark down in mid-March – during a parliamentary consultation called to review the basis for the lockdown the PM said the government had received advice and recommendations about how to get the situation under control but the final decision was political

The spread of COVID-19 hasn’t accelerated since phase 2 of the reopening process two weeks ago but a rise in the rate of transmission (R), from 0.7 to 1 over the past week, is causing concern.

Gyms, sport halls, and swimming baths, closed since March, re-opened, Monday, after parties backed the government’s proposal to bring forward phase-3 of the re-opening process as the corona crisis recedes.

15,000 protesters joined the latest Black Lives Matter demonstration in Copenhagen Sunday, gathering outside the US Embassy before proceeding to Christiansborg. Although the demonstration far exceeded the ban on groups of more than 10 it was completely legal as political demonstrations are exempt – however, some lawmakers called for all participants to be tested.

Politics/ Economy:

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that Danish GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which indicates the size of the economy, could fall by 5.8% this year, more than the government’s own prediction of 5.3% but if there’s a second wave of the corona epidemic the economy could shrink by 7.1%,

Following a Finance Ministry estimate that the budget proposal put forward by the EU Commission will cost Denmark an extra DKK6.7bn ($1bn) annually, Liberal leader Jacob Ellemann-Jensen warned his party won’t be giving the prime minister a mandate to negotiate in this week’s EU budget talks unless she offers some indication of where the money will come from – the Social Democrats’ policy spokesman, Jesper Petersen, dismissed the threat as ‘deeply irresponsible’. Although Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is opposed to the EU’s long-term budget she said Denmark won’t be vetoing it.

The Danish Climate Council urged lawmakers to impose a CO2 duty on the oil industry after DR News revealed that companies have been granted free carbon offsets that compensate for their emissions until 2030 – a decade during which the government has vowed to cut carbon emissions by 70%.

For the second consecutive month Danish inflation stayed unchanged at 0.0% in May.

Centrum Venstre (Centre-Left) a new party founded by former imam Ahmed Akkari, a leading figure in the 2006 Mohammed cartoons crisis, laid out its political platform, including plans to close down mosques and a blanket ban on immigration from non-Western countries.

Exports fell 5.8 percent year-on-year to $52.9 billion in April, the lowest since May 2018, following a 4.8 percent drop in March.

Foreign Affairs/EU:

Roskilde District Court heard how three exiled Iranians in Denmark allegedly received, or attempted to obtain, more than DKK20m ($3m) from a Saudi Arabian intelligence agency between 2012-2018 to fund terrorist activities – Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Denmark was summoned to the Danish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday where, according to Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, it was made ‘crystal clear’ that Denmark will ‘under no circumstances accept this type of behaviour.’

A parliamentary majority approved dispatching helicopters and 285 troops to Baghdad as Denmark prepares to assume leadership of  a training mission for Iraqi security forces from Canada by the end of 2020 – at the same time a frigate will be sent to assist a European-led naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz, for a four-month period from August.

The USA officially opened its new consulate in Greenland, part of what analysts believe is a bigger push by Washington to extend US influence in both the country and the Arctic region – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was “proud to celebrate” the office’s reopening that is emblematic of the “deepening” cooperation between the two countries.

Ex- prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was picked by the U.S. to help the United Nations (UN) broker a peace deal in Libya.

Denmark committed DKK 6,000,000 ($870,000) to support the Government of Iraq’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Defence Minister Trine Bramsen said the government is aiming to exclude 5G suppliers from countries that aren’t allies with Denmark – in an interview with online technology news outlet ITWatch, the Minister said that ‘in order to protect Denmark and the Danes, we need to collaborate with someone with whom we already have alliances’, which could rule out China.

Parliament was split along party lines, Thursday, when debating whether Prince Joachim should be allowed to take his annual royal grant to Paris when he assumes his new job as Denmark’s defence attaché on September 1st.

Denmark ranked 1st in the world in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), which measures the environmental performance of 180 countries around the world.

Social Affairs:

Leader of the anti-Muslim Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, Rasmus Paludan, could be facing a prison term – Næstved District Court will later this month rule on 14 charges put forward in a new indictment from the Public Prosecutor in Copenhagen, including racist comments and acts of violence – a protestor brandishing a knife was shot by the police at an anti-Muslim demonstration arranged by Mr Paludan.

The High Court upheld the racism verdict against three men who were fined in 2018 for handing out ’anti-asylum spray’ on the streets of Haderslev ‘to help protect young Danish girls from being raped.’

FC Copenhagen announced plans to circumvent the limit on large gatherings by splitting its home ground, the National Stadium, into 21 sections of 500.

Business:

Danske Bank, still under investigation for its role in the money laundering scandal, was reported to the police by the Financial Supervisory Authority, the finance sector’s ‘watchdog’, for violating regulations designed to protect investors against market manipulation.

One of Denmark’s leading pension companies, MP based in Gentofte, excluded a further 24 oil companies from its investment portfolio, divesting almost DKK900m ($133.9 million) in assets.

Tivoli Gardens, hard hit by the corona epidemic, announced plans to fire 440 employees, around 20% of its workforce.

Japanese Fujifilm Holdings Corp announced a $928 million investment in its drug manufacturing facility in Hillerød to help produce COVID-19 treatments

U.S. pharma giant Abbvie agreed to pay Danish biotech firm Genmab $750 million to jointly develop and market cancer treatments.

Novo Nordisk, the world’s biggest maker of medicines for diabetes, agreed to pay as much as $2.1 billion for Corvidia Therapeutics, a company developing heart- and kidney-disease drugs.

US-owned Cook Medical, based in Bjaeverskov, has been granted DKK23.7m ($3.6m) in wage compensation from the Danish state while at the same time owing the tax authorities DKK 728m ($50.5m).

As Copenhagen Airport gradually starts to reopen, Scandinavia’s flagship airline, SAS, announced it will resume services on 21 short-haul routes this month.

And That Was the Week That Was, June 8th – 14th 2020: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).