Last Week in Denmark (04.06 - 11.06) Episode 22 Year 3
17 days without rain; Queen of NATO; Danish astronaut's space return
Editor HQ
Great response to the initiative “9 local international clubs”: Since it was announced last week, 132 people have signed up for the project. As you can imagine, the large majority is from Copenhagen, Aalborg, Aarhus, Esbjerg, and Odense. The form will stay open until July 1, so you can still encourage your friends around Denmark to sign up. The “founding committees” will be formed after August 1.
Besides the five already mentioned municipalities, Billund and Frederiksberg also qualify. That means we have 7 out of the 9 locations.
Other locations that are very close: Gentofte, Lyngby, Roskilde, Vejle, and Horsens.
Updates to the project “LWID Merchandise”: Thank you to all the international artists who responded to our call. I will follow up with your messages this week.
Danish Politics HQ
New Laws and Regulations
Ban on the use of pesticides close to drinking water boreholes from mid-2024: There are 5,607 borehole protection areas in Denmark. Almost 50% of them are at risk due to pesticides being used in their vicinity. Around some of them, 9% to be more exact, voluntary agreements have been made with the farmers.
Besides the ban, it was decided to map the groundwater in Denmark so that it would be easier to identify areas where pollution could impact quality.
Danish Citizenship, Integration and Immigration Laws
Law proposals and ideas
No screen time for children in daycare and kindergarten: The minister of education, Mattias Tesfaye, will propose a law to ban the use of phones/ipads/tvs in daycare institutions and kindergartens. Why? A child should not be exposed to screens before the age of six.
Research done by VIVE shows that 52% of three-year-olds spend at least one hour a day in front of a screen. On the other hand, a report made by Aarhus University (2020) says that, on average, children are exposed to a maximum of 5 minutes of screen time in daycare and kindergarten.
The parents association FOLA considers the law proposal irrelevant and recommends the minister come up with solutions that would increase the quality of education. The pedagogues union, BUPL, also doesn’t find the law relevant.
Nye Borgerlige (far-right); Liberal Alliance (libertarian); Konservative (conservative) are against the idea of a “screen ban”. SF (socialist) are open to the idea.
The reform of higher education in Denmark will happen… later… maybe: For three months now, the government has been negotiating with the opposition to reach a broad agreement regarding higher education reform. In March, they proposed, among others, to shorten 50% of masters degrees to one year. Today, the compromise stands at 36% of masters degrees. However, a compromise that the opposition is still not comfortable with. They claim that for such an experiment, 5% would be a more fitting percentage, which is quite far from what the government initially planned.
The government has the necessary majority to pass the reform, but they wish to include more parties in the agreement to strengthen it and ensure it will not be changed after the next elections.
The negotiations will most likely last until next year.
The political arena
Will the prime-minister of Denmark become the new Secretary General of NATO? That’s the question that tormented the Danish political class this week. According to Mette Frederiksen, she is not a candidate for the position, and even if she were, it wouldn’t be smart to be open about it as it would destabilize the government. However, denying that she is a candidate while visiting the White House (the seat of the US president and the strongest NATO country) wasn’t very convincing. The political class started to prepare different action plans depending on what Mette will do this summer.
Two of the government parties (Venstre and Moderaterne) are considering the scenario of Mette resigning in the summer and are asking for a new government foundation if that happens. A new government foundation would mean renegotiating the framework for governing Denmark.
Besides Mette Frederiksen, there are other potential candidates that the international media has been talking about: the UK’s Minister of Defence, Ben Wallace; Netherlands’ Prime Minister, Mark Rutte; Estonia’s Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas; Romanian President Klaus Iohannis; Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova and Lithuania’s Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte. The decision will be taken on the 11th of July at the NATO Summit in Lithuania.
The rumors about Mette Frederiksen's resignation have also sparked an internal battle within Socialdemokratiet. Who will be the next social democrat leader and the Prime Minister of Denmark? That is the question that various factions within the party are trying to answer, by promoting their own candidates.
The social democrat members of Parliament are divided into four factions or “coffee clubs” as they call them. There is the “Morgenmadsgruppen” led by Morten Bødskov; “Frokostklubben” led by Nicolai Wammen; “Netværket” led by Peter Hummelgaard and “Kaffeklubben” led by Magnus Heunicke.
The first two factions named, which are also the largest, want Nicolai Wammen (the current nr. 2) as prime minister and Morten Bødskov as his nr. 2 aka the Minister of Finance. Their main argument is that they have been part of the government foundation negotiations together with Mette Frederiksen and they could continue the political project of a red-blue government.
The others support Peter Hummelgaard as the new minister of finance.
The potential idea of a new government foundation and the current economic situation in Denmark have led Venstre (Liberals) and Moderaterne (Social Liberals) to ask for potential tax cuts.
Moderaterne want to lower corporate tax and stock tax; allocate more money for support of entrepreneurship programs
The social democrats do not see the idea of potential tax cuts as realistic.
Danish Economy HQ
968,600 people got a new job in 2022 (either by changing or by having the first one): The highest number ever recorded. The great demand for labor has allowed people to seek better paid or simply different jobs, and it has encouraged many people both from Denmark and abroad to enter the labor market. The data has been provided by Jobindsats (a statistics platform run by the Danish Labor Market Agency).
For 2023, only data for January is available, and what it indicates is that most likely the record might be broken again this year. 82,930 people changed jobs or started their first one in January 2023.
Last year (2022), 63% of the unemployed people (93,000 at the beginning of 2022) found a job. 14,000 of the people who found a job had been unemployed for more than a year.
Daily Life in Denmark HQ
17 days since we last had rain in Denmark: After the driest May in 15 years, June looks to be another dry month. The fire hazard risk is moderate to high around the country. If it continues like this, most likely we will not be allowed bonfires on the 23rd of June. The forecast for rain looks bleak - no rain until 16th June at least.
The water utility companies are asking people to be mindful of their water usage. Reserves are not unlimited, and we need to prevent running out of drinking water in the middle of the drought. Some waterworks have already informed their customers that fines will be given to people who waste water. You need to pay attention to the messages coming from your own waterworks in the following weeks.
The authorities recommend that you water with a watering can instead of a garden hose; you should do it in the evening (after 20 o'clock) so that it doesn’t evaporate immediately; do not water the grass, even if it gets yellow (it will become green again once it rains); do not use a large swimming pool in your garden; when it finally arrives, try to collect rainwater.
In the next few years, Denmark will experience more and worse periods of drought.
Agriculture is at high risk. The government is looking at potential help packages for farmers if the drought continues for another 14 days. An extended drought means a lower yield from the fields, if any at all.
The support for an age limit on energy drinks is growing: Since Norway introduced an age limit of 16 in order to be allowed to buy energy drinks, several organizations, political parties, and influencers have asked for the same thing in Denmark.
The Danish Food and Drug Agency advises against children’s consumption of energy drinks, while young people should limit their consumption to one small can per week, if they don’t drink coffee, tea, or cola.
Andreas Mogensen will go back into space for six months: The Danish astronaut will live for six months on the International Space Station. This is the second time he is going on the ISS. Last time it was for 10 days in 2015. This time he will pilot the Dragon spaceship, which will be launched into space by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
He is Denmark’s first astronaut to go into space. He is a former civil engineer from Vestas, with a Phd. in aerospace from the University of Texas. He was chosen from among 1000 applicants at ESA (European Space Agency).
Healthcare with Punitha Kumar
Over 400 nurses have left the public health sector, a report from the Copenhagen University of Applied Sciences has revealed. Constantly busy and packed work schedules, too many extra and odd-hour shifts, and inexperienced colleagues were some of the reasons why the former government nurses have mostly chosen to work in private hospitals or in Norway instead. Although low wages were mentioned often in the report, the university’s associate professor Nana Vaaben said raising the salary alone would not fix the problem. “They are often called in their spare time and asked or forced to stay longer at work, and this is obviously not conducive to wanting to stay in one's job,” Vaaben, who worked on the report, said. Research has shown that Denmark will lack around 10,000 nurses by 2030 due to hiring constraints and more elderly people needing care.
Popular diabetes drug ‘Ozempic’ may no longer be subsidized as the Danish Medicines Agency assesses whether this could save millions of kroner in health subsidies. Known for being the preferred choice among patients because it also helps with weight loss, the Novo Nordisk drug costs 1,300 DKK each month per patient, and this is largely subsidized by taxpayers. Last year, 80,000 citizens received the drug, and the regions spent 580 million DKK which is 10% of the region’s total expenditure on health subsidies.
A department under the Danish Health Authority has also stressed that drug consumption must “significantly decrease”. It said those who are currently on the drug should ideally be switched to cheaper and similar alternatives.
Meanwhile, Danish Society for General Medicine chairwoman Bolette Friderichsen said patients who are on the drug shouldnt be immediately switched to a different drug. “We recommend that doctors think financially when they start a new medication, and also preferably when they routinely assess a patient's medication once a year.”
Announcement Board
This section is curated by Cicek Eris. If you have events you want us to include here please send an e-mail to denmarkhappenings@gmail.com. You can check out her newsletter about cultural events in Denmark here.
Hjørring, 13th June, 14:00-16:00: Are you new to job search in Denmark? International House North Denmark and Hjørring Municipality would like to invite you to a seminar where you will be introduced to the basics of job search in Denmark and get an insight into writing a CV and cover letter according to Danish requirements.
Copenhagen, 13th June, 08:30-12:00: Starting business for the first time? This lecture provides an all-round introduction to the basics of entrepreneurship, and is specially tailored to anyone who needs a beginners introduction to administrative needs and business development opportunities when starting a company.
Copenhagen, 15th June, 17:00-19:00: Interested in renting a home or buying cooperative housing in Denmark? At this event, you will be guided through the Danish housing market and what you should look out for when considering renting a place to live or buying cooperative housing.
Online, 15th June, 17:00: As an international parent navigating the Danish daycare system can be a challenge. What are your options? How do you sign up your child? What does a day at daycare look like? This introduction to the daycare system focuses on childcare for children aged 0 to 6.
Wow,its amazing that Denmark can remain without drinking water if there is no rain for a few days,but summer is supose to be summer..to be hot and sunny most of the times.