The Week That Was, September 7th – 13th 2020:

Coronavirus/ What happened last week:

The government partially rolled back the reopening process following a sharp spike in corona virus infections – Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that Denmark is in a ‘difficult place’ but the government will do everything it can to avoid a lockdown.

Health experts warned that unless the rising number of corona infections is brought under control the public is facing even stricter restrictions.

The so-called ‘R’ rate, which reflects the average number of infections one person with the corona virus causes, rose to 1.5 from 0.9 – when the figure rises above 1 it means the epidemic is growing and more and more are being infected.

Sweden, much-criticised over the past six months for its lockdown-free approach to covid-19, is now registering fewer daily infections than Denmark.

Danes are more concerned about cyberattacks than corona – according to a survey by the Washington DC-based Pew Research Centre, 66% believe that cyber-attacks from other countries are a major threat, compared to 59% who are concerned about the threat of infectious diseases.

Politics/Economy:

Opposition leader Jakob Ellemann Jensen warned that Denmark will never emerge from the economic crisis under the policies laid out by Mette Frederiksen – his first direct attack on the prime minister since the outbreak of the corona epidemic.

The government’s parliamentary ally, the Social Liberals (Radikale), claimed Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod should never have been appointed after he admitted having sex with a 15-year-old girl at a Social Democrat youth party in 2008, when he was 34.

DR News reported that Military Intelligence (FE) leadership was repeatedly warned about possible illegalities in the agency’s secret espionage cooperation with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said the government will use the disruption caused by the corona virus to gradually adopt the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Costlier petrol and a new road tax on all vehicles – two of the main proposals in the specially appointed government commission’s report on electric cars, published Monday after eighteen months of examining how to encourage Danish motorists to buy ‘green’ cars – the government wants to see half a million electric cars on Danish roads by 2030 yet has only purchased two ‘green’ vehicles for state purposes since the Social Democrats returned to power in June 2019.

Danish People’s Party MP Marie Krarup announced she won’t be standing at the next election after party leadership supported the circumcision ban on boys under the age of 18 – BT’s political analyst Henrik Qvortrup said seeing one of the party’s most popular MPs turn her back on the party is bad news for under-pressure leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl.

Consumer prices fell by 0.4% month on month in August, the biggest decline in a year as the cost of hotels and air travel slumped.

Foreign Affairs/EU:

The government appointed Denmark’s first-ever migration ambassador to lobby for its proposal to help refugees regionally – the aim is to set up migrant reception centres in one or more countries outside the EU to diminish the incentive for migrants to seek asylum in Denmark.

Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod put forward a new foreign and security policy based on ’traditional Social Democrat values’ – democracy, liberty, and respect for human rights.

Denmark pledged DKK22.4m ($3.4m) in emergency aid to help unaccompanied minors left homeless by the fire at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

Denmark urged Tunisia to accept responsibility for the 27 migrants stranded on a Maersk tanker off the coast of Malta for the past five weeks – on Friday they were allowed to disembark in Italy.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel refused to rule out reconsidering the Nord Stream 2 Russian pipeline, currently under construction in Danish territorial waters, following the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – Denmark and Estonia joined together to call for an independent and international investigation into the affair.

Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod condemned the mysterious disappearance of Belarus opposition leader Irena Kolesnikova as ‘totally unacceptable’ and called for a ’very clear and immediate’ EU denouncement.

The government is reopening Denmark’s embassy in Baghdad this autumn, closed for the past eight years, as part of its efforts to help combat the Islamic State and contribute to the stabilisation of the situation in both Iraq and Syria.

The Ministry of Defence signed a $36m contract to purchase mine-hunting sonar equipment from Canadian company for the Royal Navy.

Thomas Ahrenkiel, who was denied the ambassadorship of Germany two weeks ago after being implicated in the Military Intelligence scandal, is receiving full pay – around DKK145,000 per month – while suspended from the Defence Ministry.

Social Affairs:

Jyllands-Posten denied a request from French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for permission to re-print the paper’s original front page from 2005 featuring all 12 Mohammed caricatures that sparked off riots throughout the Muslim world fifteen years ago.

The far-right anti-Muslim party Stram Kurs announced new Quran-burning demonstrations in five heavily immigrant districts in the capital of Stockholm over the weekend.

The Danish People’s Party said immigrant youths found guilty of a violent crime should be deported if they aren’t citizens, following a wave of attacks on Danish teenagers.

The government wants temporary legislation that allows the authorities to strip foreign fighters of their passport to be made permanent.

‘Submarine slayer’ Peter Madsen Peter Madsen, whose 2018 trial for the brutal slaying of Swedish journalist Kim Wall hit the headlines internationally, admitted for the first time that he did commit the murder.

Business:

Danish exports fell by 2.4% in July – shipments to the EU decreased 2.9 percent, led by a 6.9 percent slump in demand from Germany. Exports to the UK grew 3.4 percent.

The Danish Chamber of Commerce warned its members to prepare for a hard Brexit and a potential ‘no deal’ that would have major repercussions for Danish companies.

Industrial production fell by 5.6% percent month-on-month in July, mainly due to a significant decline pharmaceutical sales.

The corona crisis continues to devastate Scandinavia’s flagship airline, SAS, whose total number of passengers decreased by 74% in August, to 2.1 million, despite a small increase of 12 000 compared to July.

Denmark’s biggest telecom company, TDC, rolled out its new 5G network across parts of Denmark, paving the way for new technological possibilities such as self-driving cars, remote operations, and super-speed internet.

Danske Bank agreed to pay out a total of up to DKK100m ($16 million) in compensation to 900 customers after over-charging them for an investment product.

Apple announced plans to build two of the world’s largest onshore wind turbines in this country to support its data centre in Viborg,

And That Was the Week That Was, September 7th – 13th 2020: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).