The Week That Was, July 4th – July 10th 2016
Politics/Economy
Danish People’s Party (DPP) leader Kristian Thulesen demanded a new EU referendum as the price for his party’s participation in a new centre-right government after the next election – the ruling Liberals’ EU spokesman, John E. Jørgensen, said ‘it isn’t going to happen’ and Danish voters ‘have other things to do’ than keep running to the ballot box. Two new Megafon polls reflected a significant shift in Danish voters’ attitude since the Brexit referendum – only 32% of the Danish electorate would welcome the opportunity of voting on Denmark’s EU future today, compared to 40% before, while 70% say they would prefer to remain in the EU, compared to 60% two weeks ago.
Opposition parties called on the government to re-open the disbanded Iraq Commission, after an independent UK inquiry delivered a devastating indictment of Britain’s decision to invade Iraq, Wednesday.
A new survey by Megafon for TV2 and Politiken showed Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen is considered the country’s ‘most credible’ party leader by voters, with 38%, followed by the Danish people’s Party’s Kristian Thulesen Dahl.
A new study showed that even though voters have continually been promised lower taxes by successive governments they pay the same percentage today as they did fifteen years ago – all parties on the right expressed a willingness to accept the Danish People’s Party’s (DDP) demand for more immigration restrictions in return for tax relief.
The number of homes repossessed by mortgage lenders fell to an 8-year low during the first six months of the year, a further sign of an improving economy and the increasing strength of Denmark’s property market.
Foreign Affairs/EU
Ahead of the NATO summit in Warsaw, Friday, Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen characterised Denmark’s relationship with Russia as ‘frosty’ but expressed hope of improvement through more dialogue – the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, urged Denmark to live up to its commitment to strengthen the military. While 22 countries have agreed to increase defence spending this year, Denmark has only promised to halt planned cutbacks.
Former foreign ministers, top civil servants, Danish diplomats, and high-ranking PET (Danish Intelligence) officials were summoned to appear before the ‘Tibet Commission’ to investigate why Danish Police aggressively suppressed pro-Tibet demonstrators during an official state visit by China’s president at the time, Hu Jintao, in 2012.
Integration Minister Inger Støjberg dismissed calls to make the much criticised citizenship exam easier – nearly 70 per cent failed the first test in June but after presenting a study of the results, Tuesday, the Minister blamed applicants who had ‘failed to prepare adequately’. Ms Støjberg will travel to Austria after summer to seek inspiration from that country’s iron-fisted approach to border and asylum policy.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2016 ranked Denmark number 11 in terms of ‘generating economic impact from investments in information and communications technologies (ICT) – Finland leads the way, followed by Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States.
Minister for Food and the Environment, Esben Lunde Larsen, travelled to Singapore today to promote Danish water technology at the Singapore International Water Week.
The Ny Carsberg Glyptoteket Museum in Copenhagen reached an agreement with Italy’s Ministry of Culture to return a number of Etruscan and Greco-Roman archeological relics it falsely acquired in the 1970s.
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Social Affairs
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen came under fire for tweeting a message of congratulations to Danish Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan – the Danish People’s Party’s (DPP) Kenneth Kristensen Berth called it ‘inappropriate’ behavior.
The mayors of two Copenhagen suburbs stepped up the fight against Muslim foreign fighters after two Danish-Kurdish fathers admitted their daughters had ‘most probably’ left Denmark to join the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
Berlingske Business magazine’s latest annual rich list showed Denmark’s wealthiest families have emerged from the financial crisis even richer – the total wealth of the top-50 families has grown by DKK260bn (€36bn), or 155%, since the crisis hit in 2009
Eight people were charged in connection with the investigation into gossip magazine See & Hear (Se & Hør).
Business:
Industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent month-over-month in May, faster than the 0.7 percent climb in April.
Maersk Line and 13 other major transporters were given EU approval to increase their rates by the EU Competition Commission, which had investigated the industry for signs of a cartel-like operation.
Danish Crown, Denmark’s biggest food exporter, was again reported to the police for poor hygiene – during a control visit to the company’s slaughterhouse in Ringsted, Veterinary and Food Administration inspectors uncovered ‘serious problems.’
Danish pork exporters are benefitting from the Chinese government’s crackdown on small backyard farms due to environmental pollution concerns – industry experts in this country believe the Chinese demand could boost Denmark’s total pork exports this year to more than one billion US dollars.
Car sales continue to rise, a strong sign that the economy is recovering – 23,633 new cars were registered in June, 10.8% up on the same month last year when sales hit a new record.
The former CEO of one of Denmark’s leading fishmeal suppliers was jailed and fined for mixing biodiesel oil with fish oil – a court found that as head of FF Skagen, Morten Broberg was responsible for producing and selling 172,500 tons of polluted fish oils to the value of DKK1.4bn ($2.1m).
Denmark’s biggest offshore windfarm, Horns Rev 3, will be run on wind turbines from Vestas and its Japanese partner Mitsibushi.
Despite signs of economic improvement nearly 500 businesses filed for bankruptcy during the first six months of 2016, the worst half-yearly period since 2010.
The benchmark Danish 10-year yield dropped to a record low of just 0.047 per cent, Tuesday, matching similar moves in Switzerland, as the uncertainty throughout Europe and political chaos in Great Britain led investors towards ‘safe’ government bonds.
Denmark’s foreign exchange reserves rose to DKK 452.3bn ($67.7 bn) in June from DKK 426.9bn at the end of May – the National Bank intervened in the foreign exchange market by selling DKK 25.2bn in June to keep the currency stable against the euro.