What did we learn this week?
4.2% forecasted growth makes Denmark one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Immigration and citizenship are back in the center of Danish politics. Expect a long debate followed by new initiatives this autumn.
Acute psychiatric help is now available through the emergency health service.
Letter from the editor
I used to believe that almost everything was possible in Denmark. I even had a name for it: the Danish Dream. After 17 years here, however, I have to admit something that is difficult to write: my connection to Denmark is at an all-time low.
I arrived in Denmark at 18 to study. During those first years, I was mostly concerned with surviving and figuring out who I was. But after about five years, something changed. I became convinced (perhaps naively) that I was living in the greatest society on this planet. I became attached to Aalborg. I began thinking of myself as a local. And I became fascinated by the Danish model: a society built around democracy, trust, strong institutions, and the idea that people should have both rights and responsibilities.
Around the same time, I started traveling extensively. Wherever I went, I became an unofficial ambassador for Aalborg and Denmark. I would tell people about all the things Denmark seemed to get right. You could see it in the articles I wrote, the projects I created, and the ideas I promoted. The DNA of Danish society was everywhere in my work.
I became so interested in Danish history and geography that I passed the citizenship exam with the maximum score before I could even speak Danish. To this day, I can name Denmark’s 98 municipalities in the order they appear on the map (a completely useless skill that I remain strangely proud of). I even volunteered in the Danish Home Guard and signed a contract saying, quite literally, that I was prepared to defend Denmark. That was how strong the connection had become.
At some point, I almost stopped thinking of Denmark as simply the country where I lived. Through shared values, participation, and a deep absorption of its society, I felt partly Danish. Denmark had a huge supporter in that younger version of me.
And that is perhaps why what has happened over the past few years hurts so much. My connection to Denmark has slowly weakened. For years, I have written about the cultural conflicts that I believed would shape Denmark. What I did not understand was that I would stop being an observer of those conflicts. I would become one of their subjects.
Denmark is changing. It always has, despite the romantic idea that there was once a culturally uniform Denmark that we simply need to return to. The Denmark of the future will inevitably be more diverse than the Denmark of the past. And whenever societies change, there are counter-reactions. I believe we are living through one now.
Ideas about internationals and belonging that not long ago belonged to the fringes have entered mainstream debate. Proposals that would once have caused outrage are discussed seriously. The boundaries of what can be proposed keep moving. And if you are among the people whose belonging is constantly being debated, you hear that message differently. Sometimes I can detach myself from it. I can look at Denmark as someone interested in geopolitics and analyze what is happening almost academically. Then I return to my actual life and remember that I am not merely observing the cultural transformation of Denmark. I am living inside it.
Perhaps having children changed this most for me. Things I might once have dismissed as political theater now make me angry. Every time the political system chips away at the rights and dignity of people it considers somehow less Danish, I wonder what kind of Denmark my children will inherit. Will they grow up feeling that this country is unquestionably theirs? Or will they spend their lives being asked (directly or indirectly) to prove that they belong? That question scares me more than any political proposal on its own.
If you have been reading this newsletter for some time, you have probably noticed some of these trends as well. That is one reason I believe our work has become more important, not less. We need to understand what is happening. We need to participate in the conversations shaping this country. We need to vote, organize, speak, write, join associations, engage with institutions, and challenge ideas when they cross the line from legitimate political disagreement into telling entire groups of people that they will never truly belong. A counter-reaction cannot be allowed to become the only reaction.
Because there is another Denmark too. The Denmark that an 18-year-old newcomer once fell completely in love with. The Denmark of democracy, participation, trust, community, and the belief that society is something we build together. I am not ready to give up on Denmark. But for the first time in 17 years, I feel that I have to fight to remain connected to it.
Thank you for reading and sharing Last Week in Denmark!
Narcis George Matache, Executive Editor, LWID
Our long-form articles this week…
Tur-return: Episode 17 – Nudity is natural — and no big deal in Denmark by Laura Matheson
The Little Viking Saga – Episode 13 – A wheelie big milestone by Emily Ritchie
Learning Danish Series: Rethinking Danish Learning with Liam Pilmore of DanishTube by Paulina Stachnik
What are the best ways to learn Danish? by Anna Łęcka
Want to dig deeper into the latest news? Check out the Last Week in Denmark podcast. New episodes drop on all podcast apps and YouTube every Wednesday. Follow now so you don’t miss it.
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Image(s) of the Week
📸Late summer is prime time for skypumper, Denmark’s smaller cousin of the tornado.
Danish Politics HQ
New laws
🇩🇰 The Ministry of Culture wants to protect the Danish language from English words and expressions. Culture Minister Zenia Stampe will give the Danish Language Council (Dansk Sprognævn) a more active role in protecting Danish, including contacting authorities and institutions to encourage correct Danish. The ministry also wants stronger language obligations for public-service media and will establish a new council advising them on their use of Danish. The minister argues that English is becoming increasingly dominant in workplaces, education, and culture, while traditional Danish words and expressions risk disappearing.
Law proposals
🚲 Copenhagen wants to rein in tourists on shared e-bikes. With around 13,000 shared e-bikes currently on the streets, cycling and tourism organizations have agreed with politicians that action is needed before next summer. Proposals include fewer shared bikes and better information about Danish cycling rules. Earlier this week, Lord Mayor Sisse Marie Welling even floated the idea of a short “cycling license” for tourists before renting a bike. For now, these are proposals rather than new rules. The debate follows growing frustration with inexperienced visitors on Copenhagen’s busy cycle lanes.
Political scene
🇩🇰 Danish politics is back from summer break, and the autumn could get messy. Denmark’s new four-party government has barely had time to settle in since taking office in June, but several potentially difficult battles are waiting. Political analysts point to immigration, citizenship, food prices, agriculture, and the green transition as some of the biggest issues likely to dominate the coming months.
For us, immigration and citizenship may be the one to watch most closely. A debate is expected over screening applicants for Danish citizenship on their commitment to democratic values, while the government itself continues to pursue a strict immigration policy, including more deportations and return centers outside Europe.
💰The government has promised that taxpayers will not pay more while Denmark waits for cheaper food. The plan is to halve VAT on food and remove it entirely from fruit and vegetables, but the new system cannot be introduced before 2028. To help finance it, the government had planned to temporarily freeze several tax thresholds, effectively increasing taxes. After pressure from Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance), Lars Løkke Rasmussen now guarantees that any extra tax collected this way will be returned to taxpayers through other measures at the same time.
🛂Denmark wants the first people without legal residence in Europe to be transferred to “return hubs” outside the EU as early as 2027. Immigration Minister Morten Bødskov is touring European capitals to build support, with Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Greece forming a five-country group working on the plan. The ministers will meet in Copenhagen, with the European Commission attending as an observer. Denmark hopes to reach an agreement with a non-EU partner country before the end of 2026.
In June, the European Parliament and EU governments reached a political agreement on new common return rules that explicitly allow return hubs in third countries. They would be for non-EU nationals who have received a decision saying they have no right to stay.
👓 Meta’s smart glasses spark a privacy debate in Denmark. Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance) wants Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses banned over fears that people can be filmed without realizing it. They argue that glasses capable of discreetly recording video and audio challenge the basic right to privacy and say Danish legislation needs to catch up with the technology. The controversy has grown after reports of the glasses being used to secretly film people, particularly women, with recordings later appearing on social media.
🏫 No fasting, no “dominance” puffer jackets and no speaking English during lunch? DD (Nationalist Populist) has 15 ideas for schools. Leader Inger Støjberg presented a package aimed at fighting negative social control. Among the proposals: students should speak only Danish (including during breaks), shake hands with someone of the opposite sex on their first day, sign a declaration accepting “Danish values,” and face restrictions on fasting, prayer rooms, headscarves, caps, and certain puffer jackets. The party also proposes a 25% cap on students with a non-European background at individual schools. However, these ideas most likely will never become reality.
Daily Life in Denmark HQ
🪽 A new symbol aims to make grief more visible in everyday life. People who have lost someone close to them can wear the new sorgvinge (grief wing), a small angel-wing badge carrying the words “Jeg har mistet” (“I have lost”), signaling that they may need some extra understanding from colleagues and others around them. More than 1,000 will initially be distributed free through hospitals and hospices. Supporters describe it as a modern version of the traditional mourning armband.
🏖️ How private can your private life really be when you work in a public-facing profession? A priest from Svendborg sparked a debate after people recognized her while she was sunbathing topless on a beach. The priest says she deliberately traveled elsewhere so she could relax without worrying about meeting people from her congregation but ended up being approached by a family that included former confirmation students. She says the encounter was friendly, but it left her asking where the boundary lies between being yourself and always representing your profession.
🚗 Frederiksberg will test an app that shows drivers where parking spaces are available. Around 300 spaces near Frederiksberg Swimming Pool will get sensors, allowing drivers to check availability instead of circling the streets looking for a spot. The one-year pilot is expected to start in early 2027, while Copenhagen is preparing a similar system covering around 4,500 parking spaces.
☎️ Acute psychiatric help is now available through the emergency health service everywhere in Denmark. If you or someone close to you experiences a serious mental health crisis, contact your GP (family doctor) during opening hours or your region’s out-of-hours service.
Capital Region: 1813
Region Zealand: 1818
Central Denmark: 70 11 31 31
Southern Denmark: 70 11 07 07
North Denmark: 70 15 03 00
You can call for yourself or as a relative. In a life-threatening situation, call 112.
🇩🇰 X Factor has an increasingly international face. This year’s winner, 17-year-old Hugo Almeida from Sønderborg, comes from an Indian family and moved to Denmark as a child. He follows 2025 winner Leslie Nguyen from Esbjerg, whose parents came to Denmark from Vietnam, and 2024 winner Helene Frank, who grew up in the Danish minority in Germany. They aren’t the first: in 2016, sisters Anilde and Azilda Kaputu, who came to Denmark as child refugees from Angola, won the competition as the duo Embrace. Denmark’s biggest talent show is reflecting an increasingly diverse Denmark.
🇩🇰 Danish gamer becomes the first European in League of Legends’ Hall of Legends. Rasmus “Caps” Winther has become only the third player in the world inducted into the Hall of Legends, following South Korean superstar Faker and China’s Uzi. Caps is considered the most decorated player in European League of Legends history. The recognition is another milestone for a powerful Danish esports scene, which has produced some of the world’s best-known competitive gamers.
Danish Economics HQ
Our money
💸 More young people are ending up in Denmark’s bad-debt register. The number of 18–20-year-olds registered in RKI has increased by more than 35% in five years, reaching 2,275 this July. That’s roughly one in every 100 people in this age group. Experts point particularly to unpaid phone bills, small consumer loans, online spending, and limited knowledge of personal finances.
If you’re new to Denmark: RKI is important to understand. Being registered can make it difficult to borrow money or lease a car.
Worried that you might be registered? You can check your own RKI status with MitID through Experian’s DinInfo service.
Forbrugerrådet Tænk also provides free and confidential debt counseling for people with low income, including online counseling.
🇩🇰 Denmark’s economy is growing at an unusually fast pace with 4.2% growth now forecasted for 2026. A new forecast from think tank AE says Denmark is currently growing considerably faster than the countries it normally compares itself with. Among the major economies examined by AE, only China is expected to grow faster. And it isn’t just Novo Nordisk. Pharma remains an important engine, but strong exports from shipping and logistics businesses, combined with rising productivity, are also contributing. Denmark has simultaneously maintained record-high employment and controlled inflation.
Importantly, AE says the growth increasingly comes from people producing more per working hour, rather than simply working longer.
State of the markets
🚫 Denmark has blocked access to prediction market Polymarket. A Danish court found that the US-based platform was offering gambling in Denmark without complying with Danish gambling law, leading Danish internet providers to block access. Polymarket, where users can bet on outcomes ranging from elections and wars to the deaths of public figures, says it plans to challenge the decision through the Danish legal system.
🐷 Pig farmers are losing up to DKK 400 on every pig they send to slaughter. An oversupply of pork across Europe has pushed prices so low that some Danish farmers now want to reduce production. However, farmers supplying cooperative-owned Danish Crown can generally only reduce their agreed deliveries by 5%, which producers say leaves them trapped producing pigs at a loss. Danish Crown says slaughterhouses cannot simply adjust capacity up and down and describes the current situation as extremely difficult.
🇩🇰 Denmark has just recorded its best-ever first half of the year for tourism. Around 26 million overnight stays were registered between January and June 2026, 2% more than last year. Almost all the growth came from international visitors: tourists accounted for 505,000 of the 565,000 additional overnight stays. Germany remains by far Denmark’s tourism market, with Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands among the other major sources of visitors. Hotels did particularly well, recording almost half a million additional nights (+5%), while holiday centers grew by 9%.
Entrepreneurship
🚀 Funding Incubator for Entrepreneurs in Denmark | 💻 Online | 🗓 August 25–September 29, 17:30–20:30 | English | A six-week practical program helping entrepreneurs understand Danish and EU funding opportunities and build a funding strategy. Participants will work hands-on with finding grants, writing funding applications, preparing budgets, combining grants with private investment, and pitching their businesses.
International Community HQ
Community Noticeboard
🌿 You’re invited to the opening of Denmark’s second National Nature Park! On Sunday, September 13, 10:00–13:00, Naturnationalpark Gribskov officially opens its roughly 1,300 hectares of wild nature. Everyone is welcome, with nature walks, activities involving the park’s free-grazing elk and red deer, and a BioBlitz where children and families can help find and register species. Participation is free.
Career Guidance: Cover Letter + CV 📍 Vejle Municipality, Skolegade 1, Vejle | 🗓 Thursday, August 27, 09:30–11:30 | Free career guidance for internationals looking for work in Denmark. 🔗 Find out more
ParentLab Salon 📍25Hours Hotel Copenhagen | 🗓 Wednesday, September 2, 11:00–12:30 (and more) | Baby-friendly, parent-focused conversations in English. 🔗 Sign up
Newcomer Café 📍 Hjørring Library | 🗓 Wednesday, September 2, 15:00–17:00 | Free. 🔗 Find out more
Newcomers Info Webinar 📍 Online | 🗓 Thursday, September 3, 10:00–12:00 | Free webinar for newcomers to Aarhus. 🔗 Sign up
The Living Room: Newcomer Café 📍 International House Esbjerg, Torvegade 23 | 🗓 Thursday, September 3, 17:00–19:00 | Free. 🔗 Find out more
➕ Hosting something relevant to internationals in Denmark? Send it to us at noticeboard@lwid.dk
Denmark in Global Headlines
🌊 Why Skagen is one of Denmark’s most distinctive coastal towns - Forbes
🪖 Denmark sends conscripts to Greenland for the first time - Arctic Today
🛡️ Denmark orders anti-drone control system from Terma - Reuters
❄️ Denmark’s defence chief visits Alaska to highlight Arctic readiness - High North News
🏭 Ukraine’s Fire Point plant in Denmark delayed until 2027 - Euractiv