Climate leader
Protect Sweden and Finland; Price cap; Home care
Danish Politics HQ
The political game
Change of political direction for Enhedslisten: The anti-NATO, anti-EU, former communist party decided after a tumultuous national meeting to change their direction regarding NATO and the EU.
New position: Denmark should stay in NATO until a better alternative appears. Denmark should stay in the EU and change it from inside. The party is no longer anti-NATO and EU.
Dream: The party will initiate talks with other left-wing parties in North Europe to establish a security alternative to NATO.
Reaction to the dream: Ministers from Sweden and Finland have already reacted negatively to the idea of a Nordic defense cooperation to replace NATO.
New times for Kristendemokraterne: The 29-year old leader of the Christian Democrat party, Isabella Arendt, decided to resign. Why? She lost the support of the party members and she feels unhappy in her position. She has been the leader for almost 3 years.
Marianne Karlsmose is the new leader of the party.
Inside the party, there is a battle now regarding the question of abortion. Historically the party has been against the right of abortion. However, the only member of the Parliament from KD, Jens Rohde, proposed that the Danish government fight for the right of abortion to be internationally recognized. This has split the party and led to the leader's resignation.
“Denmark will protect the borders of Sweden and Finland, during their accession phase to NATO” said the prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen. Sweden and Finland announced that they want to join NATO. However, the process takes time as all the NATO members need to agree. In the meantime, the two countries are exposed to Russia’s aggression, which has already started to issue threats towards them.
The state secrets case: The former minister of Defense and current member of the Parliament from Venstre, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, has escaped a trial on the accusation of leaking state secrets. There is no longer a majority in the Parliament that will approve to lift the immunity, after the Konservative decided to vote against. However, when Claus Hjort is no longer a member of the Parliament, he will be prosecuted anyway, meaning that he only postponed the judgment day.
New laws and strategies
Climate leader: A climate agreement has been reached in Esbjerg, between Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and the European Commision, which can significantly boost our economy. How? 150 gigawatts of offshore wind from the North Sea (planned capacity until 2050). More than 1000 billion DKK will be invested in developing green power from the North Sea. The renewable energy business is rejoicing :).
Danish Economy HQ
Price cap: The company Salling Group (that owns Netto, Bilka and Føtex) has introduced a maximum price for 100 to 200 basic products in their stores, to help the people affected by inflation.
Daily Life in Denmark HQ
Warning: The Danish Veterinary and Food Agency advises against using products from the company www.ironyou.dk. 57 of their dietary supplements contain dangerous chemical substances that can lead to cardiac arrest, cerebral hemorrhage and damage to the thyroid gland.
Opportunity: Every summertime, DSB has a campaign to encourage people to visit Denmark. Therefore you can buy a travel pass that is valid for 8 days (you can travel continuously for 8 days within Denmark) for 399 DKK. The sale starts on 25th of June.
Monkeypox: A milder relative of smallpox, from which you can recover, has appeared in Europe (Sweden, UK, Portugal, Spain). The old vaccine against smallpox works also for monkeypox. For now, the health authorities in Denmark are at ease.
Trustpilot for daycare institutions: A mother from Nordjylland has created a website where you can rate the daycare institutions (daycares, creches, kindergartens). The union of educators does not welcome the initiative.
Injustice towards Greenlandic parents: Many Greenlandic parents lost their children after they have been assessed as parents in Danish, a language many of them do not speak and while using Danish culture references in psychological assessment. Now, there is backlash on the issue and the Minister of Social Affairs and Elderly is looking into the matter.
Innovation on hospitalization: To make more space in the hospitals, there is an initiative to offer treatment at home.
Sport
Highest-ranked Danish men’s tennis player: Holger Rune is the 40th best men’s tennis player in the world, which makes it a record for Denmark. At just 19 years old, he has beaten the record held before by Kenneth Carlsen (former nr. 41 ATP).
European Union HQ
Sweden and Finland have applied to join NATO: The two countries have ended decades of neutrality in the face of the Russian danger. What are the next steps?
Article 10 of NATO’s founding treaty states that, once a nation has expressed interest, the existing member states "may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty ... to accede."
Ratification of new members could take a year, as the legislatures of all 30 current members must approve new applicants.
Turkey has already expressed that they are against Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Negotiations are going on to convince Turkey otherwise.
Joint research and procurement of weapons: In the early days of the pandemic, there was chaos in the European Union, as every country tried to find the necessary resources to fight it. The situation got better once the member states started to work together. To avoid the same situation happening with weapons, the European Union proposed a joint procurement from the beginning.
Column: Mental Health by Dr. Flavia Cardaș
You can read here the second column written by Dr. Flavia Cardaș.
Excerpt from the column
“Mental health is part of our overall health. There is no physical health without mental, emotional, psychological, social health. Even if we tend to separate the body from all other dimensions of human beings (mind, emotions, etc.), in reality, according to the latest scientific research, they are interconnected and thus influence each other. Our organism is a complex system, which permanently acts to obtain the state of equilibrium (homeostasis).
Mental health is influenced by many factors, such as biological / genetic factors (we are born with certain characteristics, traits), family history of mental health (the influence of mental health of parents, grandparents, extended family in raising a child), life experiences (which supports the harmonious development or truncates / blocks it, as in cases of abuse, neglect, accidents, etc.). All these factors shape our personality and change us, most of the time, without us being aware of all these influences.”