Last Week in Denmark (14.08 - 21.08) Episode 28 Year 2
Temporary ceiling for rent increases; Travel to Hungary; Danish warships
Editor HQ
4 days until the “Political Festival of Europe”. A milestone for the international community, the largest event in English ever held in Denmark. A milestone for “Last Week in Denmark” as a democracy and media partner. As members of the “International Community” in Denmark, it’s our duty to ensure that this event goes further than the first edition. When? 25-28 August Where? Mariager, North Denmark.
You can check the festival map here.
The festival welcomes children to join for the 1st Children's Democracy Festival happening by the harbor where a whole area has been dedicated to children and youth.
From Greenlandic music to Balkan beats – the Political Festival of Europe announces its music line-up headlining Emmelie de Forest.
Opportunity: Join the LAB4GE Training Course on Gender Equality in Budapest (Hungary). When? 17-23 October. Deadline to apply? 1 September. Apply here. Accommodation is covered and you will get 275 euro for transport.
Get to know our team: The newly formed social media team has started a mini-project to present the people behind this project. They started with - Andreea Loghin (our new intern) and Anastasia Sturza (recently joined the Social Media team).
Over the summer there have been some changes to our team that we will present in the first week of September. We will say goodbye and thank you to some people and welcome others.
Danish Politics HQ
The parliamentary elections 2022
The three potential leaders of Denmark: Two political leaders are challenging Mette Frederiksen (leader of the Social Democrats) for the seat of prime-minister. Usually, there are only two candidates, one from the blue side and one from the red side. This time, we will have two from the blue side and one from the red side. The two candidates are: Søren Pape Poulsen (leader of the Conservatives) and Jakob Ellemann-Jensen (leader of the Liberals - Venstre).
A potential prime-minister, Søren Pape Poulsen has been mayor of Viborg (2010-2014) and minister of justice (2016-2019). In the past, he has worked as a school teacher and in the shipping industry.
The fact that there are now two blue prime-minister candidates is a “gift to the social democrats” according to political analysts.
If the blue side wins, there is an unwritten rule, that the most popular party on that side will also give the prime minister. That means we have direct competition for votes between Venstre and Konservative.
An incident during a press conference has shown that Jakob Ellemann-Jensen has a hard time keeping even his own party in check. When asked if he would allow Inger Støjberg to be a minister in his government, he avoided answering. However, his finance spokesperson Troels Lund Poulsen, intervened to say that Venstre wouldn’t be opposed.
Due to his weak position, both in the party and in the blue camp, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen called for reinforcements. The member of the European Parliament, Søren Gade returned to be a candidate in the national elections. He obtained 200.000 personal votes in the European Parliament elections (remember that in Denmark you can choose to vote for a certain candidate from a party list).
Inger Støjberg vs. Mette Frederiksen: The race for the Queen of the North is on. Inger Støjberg’s party has announced their candidate list for the parliamentary elections and it seems she is standing as a candidate in North Denmark (home region of the current prime-minister). Why? She wants to attract social-democrat voters to the blue camp.
People are starting to call Inger’s party, DF 2.0, because, among her 30 candidates, 13 are transferred from DF. She also brought 11 candidates from Venstre and 1 from Konservative. Only 5 people on her candidate’s list are new to politics.
Her first political proposal: 9 weeks extra of maternity leave (that can be shared freely between parents). The idea will cost 2,6 billion DKK, money that she plans to take from development aid. Reactions to the idea - DF is against; Nye Borgelige thinks the idea is too pro-european; Conservatives think it’s too expensive and Venstre is open to talk about it.
What if the Conservatives would win the elections?: Well, it will be good for the rich people in Denmark, as one of their plans is to remove the top tax (15% for annual income over 552.500 DKK), lower the property and electricity taxes, lower the registration fees for electric cars and increase employment deduction. Also, they want to remove the inheritance tax. Total cost = 32 billion DKK / yearly. Where will the money come from? Reduce unemployment benefits and SU; Remove the right to early pension; Reduce public spending on healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
Venstre and DF are skeptical about the Conservatives’ economic plan.
Political analysts are saying that this economic plan will allow Mette to run with the old slogan “Mette or chaos” as it's quite uncertain what life under a blue government will bring for the average citizen.
Law proposals
Danish warships: The defense minister Morten Bødskov announced that Denmark needs to invest up to 40 billion DKK in the Danish fleet for the next 20 years. However, he would like the warships to be built in Denmark, if possible. The shipbuilding industry in Denmark will get a boost.
Russian tourists: The foreign affairs minister Jeppe Kofod announced that restrictions will be introduced soon to limit the number of Russian tourists in Denmark. This year, we had 141 tourist visas given to Russian citizens.
Temporary ceiling on rent increases: Alarmed by the situation of the 180.000 renters that would see a rent increase of almost 10% from January 2023, the prime-minister, Mette Frederiksen, proposed a temporary ceiling on rent increases. The ceiling is 4% maximum per year for the next two years.
Dansk Industri and EjendomDanmark (representatives of the landlords) are against the temporary ceiling and some political parties are also on the side of the landlords. It will be difficult for Mette Frederiksen to pass the temporary ceiling.
Higher driving to work deductions: The association of trade unions (FH) is asking the government to reopen the discussions on the value of the “driving to work deductions” so that the people with a low salary and a long distance to work should be compensated for the higher gas prices. Right now, a person that drives 30 KM to work and back spends 150 DKK more per month on gas compared to last year.
The government says it’s not a realistic proposal.
Danish Economy HQ
It’s going to be a cold winter for everyone, not just the ones using gas to keep warm. District heating (Fjernvarme) is getting more expensive as they renegotiate the contracts for biomass during the summer. Expected increase - 8 to 15%. Why? The war in Ukraine has increased demand for biomass making it more expensive.
The adventures of the “heat check”: On the 10th of August, 400.000 people in Denmark received 6.000 DKK automatically. The people that received the money fulfilled the two conditions - (a) household total income in 2020 under 650.000 DKK (b) registered in BBR (before 1 January 2022) with one of these three heat sources - natural gas; district heating with a high proportion of gas; electricity with a consumption of over 1500 KW.
Unfortunately, people don’t always update the BBR with the changes made to their house, so some people didn’t receive the money (despite being qualified for it) while others received it without being qualified.
If you got the 6.000 DKK by mistake you don’t have to return it to the state. However, if you feel like others need the money more than you, you will be able to return them voluntarily at some point in the next few months.
If you didn’t get the 6.000 DKK, despite being eligible for it, you can apply at the beginning of 2023 for them.
Daily Life in Denmark HQ
Poor working environment for the 12.000 employees of the Danish National Church. The church employees are complaining about bullying and harassment. Venstre, Konservative and DF have called the church and culture minister, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen into consultation to find a solution.
Denmark is divided into 2158 parishes (sogne). A parish is a local ecclesiastical unit (a territory assigned to a certain church). The parish handles the area's civic registration of births, marriages and deaths.
A parish is led by a parish council (menighedsråd) formed by minimum 5 people elected every four years from the people living in the parish. The parish council employs the church employees (apart from the priests). The parish council has a say in the selection of the priest. The priest once selected also has a seat in the parish council.
Climate with Amina McCauley
Denmark has entered into an agreement with the Netherlands on strengthened cooperation for capturing and storing CO2. Klima-, Energi-, og Forsyningsministeriet announced this on Thursday, arguing that carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology is central to reducing CO2 emissions. Currently, the Danish Climate Agreement for Energy and Industry 2020 allocates 16 billion DKK to promote the development of CCUS.
In other good news, Danish wind turbines and solar panels are producing more energy than they ever have, accounting for 53,3% of total electricity consumption.
Meanwhile, some climate analysts are saying that Denmark can live up to its climate target for 2025 only if it makes some significant and quick decisions. Tobias Sørenson and Karsten Capion of CONCITO, an environmental think tank, have argued that the current parliamentary agreements do not deliver sufficient reductions for Denmark to be able to reach its target of a 50–54% reduction. CONCITO are arguing that in the near future, concrete agreements in the agriculture industry need to be delivered, the food sector being central to the green movement.
Sport with Jelimir Vlastici
The 2022 European Championships is a multi-sport event taking place in Munich, Germany. It will be the second edition of the European Championships, running from 11-21 August. It will be the biggest sporting event in Germany since the 1972 Summer Olympics. The event features nine Olympic sports: Athletics, Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing, Sport Climbing, Table Tennis, and Triathlon.
In the 1000 meters double kayak event, Morten Graversen and Simon Jensen raced in the semi-final, where they showed great determination and won the heat by finishing almost two seconds faster than the second place. The finals will take place on Sunday.
Emma Aastrand raced in the single kayak race on Friday morning when she rowed in the preliminary heat of the 200 meters. The Dane actually had such a good performance that with a time of 40,663 seconds, she had qualified directly into the final.
On Thursday evening, Ida Karstoft secured her ticket to the final in the 200-meter sprint. With the time of 22,73 second, Ida obtained the second-fastest time from the three semi-finals that took place, making her a strong contender for the gold medal in the upcoming final.