Christmas/New Year news round-up: While you were away…
Coronavirus:
On December 27th Denmark held the unfortunate record of the highest rate of infection amongst developed countries but the daily rate hit a new record-high on Wednesday, 5/1/22, with 28.283 corona cases.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) questioned claims made by Tyra Grove Krause, senior epidemiologist at the National Serum Institute, who at the start of the year predicted the Omicron variant is the ‘beginning of the end’ of the coronavirus and Denmark could be back to normal by the end of February.
Schools across the country reopened on January 5th amidst a rising infection rate but Education Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil offered assurances that it’s safe for children to return.
Cut-price Irish airline Ryanair has temporarily cut 28 of its 59 routes out of Denmark due to the ongoing corona pandemic.
Politics/Economy:
In her New Year speech to the nation, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen promised ‘wide reaching’ changes and a ‘new start’ in care for the elderly – she said the government is aiming to make all domestic flights fossil fuel-free by 2030 and is also willing to discuss making it easier to attract skilled workers to Denmark from abroad ‘for a limited period.’
In her 50th New Year message, HM Queen Margrethe said 2021 had been a ‘tough year’ to get through with many challenges, not least an even more contagious version of corona, but at the same time emphasised ‘that the future is also full of hope and optimism.’
3 days ahead of Christmas a significant majority of MPs voted to exclude Inger Stolberg from parliament following her conviction in the child brides affair – the former immigration vowed to return at the next election.
The centrist Social Liberals (Radikale) warned they won’t support a 1-party Social Democrat government again at the next election – party leader Sofie Carsten Nielsen said she would only back a prime minister candidate that has a majority behind him or her, preferably a cross-party coalition.
In an interview with Politiken, Conservative leader Søren Pape Poulsen declared himself a candidate for prime minister even if the Liberals (Venstre) emerge as the biggest party on the right at the next election.
The High Court overturned the 6-month conditional prison sentence handed down to Danish People’s Party (DPP) deputy leader Morten Messerschmidt in August, paving the way for him to replace Kristian Thulesen Dahl as DPP leader this month – DPP MP Martin Henriksen said he would push to outlaw social benefits for immigrants if he wins the battle to become the populist party’s new leader.
According to two confidential documents seen by left-wing daily Information, the Justice Ministry is considering whether to allow convicted criminal kids as young as 10 years of age to be fitted with an electronic monitoring device, even though the ruling Social Democrats abolished tagging for minors when in power 10 years ago.
The Danish economy outperformed all other countries during the pandemic according to the British Economist: Based on five economic and financial indicators — GDP, household incomes, stockmarket performance, capital spending and government indebtedness —Denmark came out on top of 23 OECD members.
Revised end of year data from Statistics Denmark showed the economy expanded more than initially estimated in the third quarter (Q3) – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 1.1 percent after climbing 2.1 percent in Q2.
Consumer confidence dipped for a third consecutive month in December – pre-Christmas figures showed the consumer confidence index fell to -2.1 from -2.0 in November.
Foreign Affairs/EU:
In its annual risk evaluation published in December, the Danish Defence Intelligence Agency (FE) concluded that ‘Denmark is a target for Russian espionage because of its role as an Arctic nation and its strategic position as a gateway to the Baltic.’
Defence Minister Trine Bramsen characterised her pre-Christmas trip to Kiev as a ‘clear signal that we are very aware of what is happening right now with the Russian escalation of the conflict and we stand side by side with Ukraine.’
Denmark and Kosovo formally signed a statement of intent that will allow Denmark to rent 300 prison cells in the south-east European state to house convicted criminals sentenced to deportation.
One of the four alleged pirates who survived the shootout with a Danish warship in the Gulf of Guinea last November was flown to Denmark to face charges last week – the remaining three, who’ve been detained on the Danish warship, the Esbern Snare, for the past seven weeks and charged with the attempted murder of Danish troops, were released at sea in a small boat with food and supplies. Opposition parties blamed Defence Minister Trine Bramsen for the ‘crazy situation’ that they claimed could have been avoided if the government had made an extradition agreement with surrounding countries on the west coast of Africa.
Hong Kong University’s controversial ‘Pillar of Shame’ statue by Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot was torn down as the Chinese authorities continued their clampdown on democracy.
Social Affairs:
A new study by the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) showed 10.5% of all full-time employees in this country are foreign nationals compared to only 6.3% ten years ago – by the end of 2021 there were more than 266,000 ‘legal aliens’ in the workforce. The number of non-western immigrants in the labour market is at an all-time high – 55.8% were employed during the third quarter (Q3) of 2021, the highest ever, compared to 53% one year earlier.
A TV documentary aired on state-run DR 1 claimed that in the 1960s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funded secret experiments on hundreds of Danish orphans diagnosed as schizophrenic.
A 49-year-old Danish-Russian woman was extradited from the UK to face charges of money laundering, part of the Danske Bank scandal
A 55-year-old man was sentenced to nine months in prison for issuing death threats against Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Head of the Danish Health Authority, Søren Brostrøm.
The six remaining survivors of 22 indigenous Greenlanders who were removed from their families in 1951 and relocated to Denmark in a failed social experiment are suing the Danish state after being denied financial compensation.
Cigarette sales in this country have fallen to the lowest level since World War 2 – the latest Statistics Denmark figures showed ‘only’ 5.3bn cigarettes were sold in 2020, a billion down on the previous year and the lowest since 1945 when tobacco was restricted.
Business:
Copenhagen Stock Exchange’s trend-setting C-25 index of ‘blue-chip’ shares got off to a bad start to 2022, falling every day during the first week of trading – the collective stock market value of the 25 biggest names tumbled by more than DKK100bn ($16bn), Thursday.
Business organisations warned that the Danish labour market is at boiling point, following new figures showing 41% of companies in the construction industry were forced to reject orders in December due to a lack of manpower – the Danish Chamber of Commerce said unless the government comes up with new measures to increase the supply of manpower the already simmering labour market could ‘boil over’.
A.P. Moller-Maersk (APM) is no longer the world’s largest container line –the Danish company has been overtaken by Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) in terms of capacity. Ahead of Christmas, APM announced a DKK24bn ($3.6bn) takeover deal for the Hong Kong-based LF Logistics, one of the Danish company’s biggest acquisitions ever.
‘Green car’ sales are at an all-time high – 56% of all vehicles sold in December were either electric or hybrid, compared to 45% the previous month
ATP, Denmark’s largest pension and social security provider, announced plans to adopt a riskier investment strategy – the state-mandated fund said a quarter of contributions once reserved for safer assets like bonds will be invested in higher-risk assets from the start of 2022
Denmark’s foreign currency reserves rose to DKK 529.8bn at the end of 2021, the highest for six years, after the National Bank sold off DKK47bn ($7.1 bn) in December to protect the fixed link to the euro, the biggest monthly currency intervention to weaken the krone in seven years.
Acting on advice from the Systemic Risk Council, the government ordered all banks and mortgage companies to increase their capital buffer requirement to 2% from January 1st, 2023.