The Week That Was, November 8th – 14th 2021:
Coronavirus/ What happened last week:
At the end of the week the National Serum Institute reported 3,233 new infections, the 11th day in a row that daily infections topped 2,000. The number of patients hospitalised rose to 346, the highest since February and nearly four times as many as one month ago.
The government, faced with a ‘3rd wave’ of the pandemic, reintroduced restrictions that require anyone going to the cinema, a restaurant, the zoo, or football match to show their corona passport.
The so-called ‘R’ rate, which reflects the average number of infections one person with the corona virus causes, rose to 1.1, a sign the epidemic is on the rise.
Head of the Danish Health Authority (DHA) Søren Brostrøm said Denmark is facing a ‘new type of epidemic’ due to the way covid-19 is now spreading amongst young people before being passed on to parents and grandparents.
The government is considering allowing businesses to demand a corona pass from employees.
Politics/Economy:
A new poll projected a dead heat between the opposing blocs if a general election was held right now, with 49.9% for the government and its allies, 49.6% for the opposition parties.
The Ministry of State caused even more confusion in the textgate saga by announcing that text messages on the prime minister and other employees’ phones would no longer be automatically deleted after 30 days – less than one week after the PM said she deleted all her messages regarding the illegal mass cull of Denmark’s entire mink herd last November due to ‘security concerns and cybercrime.’
Ex-food minister Mogens Jensen denied it was his ministry that recommended the cull of every single mink in Denmark last year – in testimony to the Mink Committee he said it must have been either the justice or health ministry that suggested the mass cull at the decisive November 3rd meeting last year ‘but couldn’t remember which one.’
Denmark topped the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) published by NGOs at the Cop 26 Climate Conference in Glasgow – parliament appropriated a further DKK110m ($15.4m) to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Tommy Sørensen, a local council candidate for the Danish People’s Party (DPP) was excluded from the party for calling a female opponent a ‘field mattress’ – a derogatory reference to Danish girls who had affairs with German soldiers during the World War 2 occupation. A Social Liberal (Radikale) candidate urged voters with Turkish roots to boycott the Social Democrats, even though the two parties are close allies at national level.
Inflation rose by 3% in October, the highest for a decade.
Foreign Affairs/EU:
Integration Minister Mattias Tesfaye urged the Polish government to seek EU assistance to keep out the thousands of migrants who have gathered along the country’s border with Belarus in an attempt to gain entry to the EU, after Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said Denmark would be open to providing military assistance to its EU ally.
On the first day of her state visit to Germany, Wednesday, Queen Margrethe acknowledged that the relationship between the two countries hasn’t always been ‘harmonious’ and at times has been ‘problematic.’
Africa’s top climate negotiator accused Development Aid Minister Flemming Møller Mortensen of lying and being part of ‘one of the biggest breaches of promise in history.’
The EU is preparing to pass minimum wage legislation that would signal the end of the Danish labour market model, which has existed since 1908.
At the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow, Thursday, France, Sweden, Ireland and Greenland joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance (BOGA), an alliance of countries led by Denmark and Costa Rica committed to ending future oil and gas production within their borders.
The owners of the Russian ship being held by the Danish authorities in Skagen launched an appeal against a custody order at the High Court.
Greenland’s parliament banned uranium mining and exploration.
The Foreign Ministry urged Danish nationals to leave Ethiopia where the government has declared a state of emergency.
Social Affairs:
National broadcaster DR offered an unconditional apology to 64 former members of its Girls’ Choir after an independent legal report found evidence of widespread sexual harassment for years.
The High Court found a Romanian man guilty of begging in Copenhagen and sentenced him to 20 days in prison, even though the European Court of Human Rights sanctioned Switzerland earlier this year for heavily fining an illiterate Roma woman for begging in Geneva.
The immigration figures are fast approaching pre-corona levels – 30,000 people moved to Denmark in the third quarter (Q3) of this year, 92% of the corresponding period in 2019 before the pandemic closed down the country.
Business:
Denmark’s trade surplus increased in September to DKK 12.8bn from DKK 12.2bn in August – exports and imports increased by 4.6 percent each.
Vestas slashed its 2021 outlook for a second time this year in response to higher costs and supply constraints.
House and apartment prices in the greater Copenhagen area fell by 0.2% in October following the boom of the corona period.
And That Was The Week That Was, November 8th – 14th: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).