Roadworks cause 12-kilometre tailback outside Copenhagen 

The Route 21 “Holbækmotorvej” outside Copenhagen is experiencing major tailback this morning as a result of roadworks, the Roads Directorate (Vejdirektoratet) has warned.

The queue on the road was estimated to be around 12 kilometres long as of 6:30am.

Broadcaster DR’s traffic service P4 Trafik reports that a delay to roadworks which should have been completed overnight has caused the issue.

The Roads Directorate said normal traffic flow will not return until after the morning rush hour.

Vocabulary: massiv kø – long tailback

House prises rise to approach Covid-era levels

The Covid-19-hit years of 2020 and 2021 saw house prices soar in Denmark before a cooling-off period which began in 2022, but property prices have begun to recover towards the previously high levels, real estate media Boligsiden reports.

Data from estate agents collated by the media show the trend of rising prises.

House prices increased by 1.2 percent between April and May this year with both detached and semi-detached houses having gone up every month this year.

That has brought the average house price in Denmark to its highest level since September 2022.

“Overall we have today a housing market which is doing well and is in better shape than many of us expected,” Boligsiden’s director Birgit Daetz told news wire Ritzau.

Vocabulary: i god form – in good shape/health

EU parliament slots allocated after election results

After Denmark’s political parties found out how many seats they each have gained in the EU parliament in Sunday’s election, the allocation of the seats to various candidates has now been determined.

A complicated system involving personal and general votes and alliances or forbund between cooperating parties is used to decide which parties and which members get the seats.

For the Socialist People’s Party (SF), which took three seats in an outstanding result, the mandates went to lead candidate Kira Marie Peter-Hansen along with Rasmus Nordqvist and Villy Søvndal.

Søvndal, a veteran former foreign minister and SF party leader, makes his return as an elected politician after over a decade away. He is possibly (and unfairly given his record) best known for a speech from the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, in which he speaks in badly faltering English about climate change in an early example of a viral video.

Other notable Danish seats in the parliament went to Anders Vistisen (Danish People’s Party), Henrik Dahl (Liberal Alliance) Morten Løkkegaard and Asger Christensen (Liberal) and Per Clausen (Red Green Alliance).

The Social Democrats’ three seats are taken by lead candidate Christel Schaldemose along with Niels Fuglsang and Marianne Vind.

READ ALSO: Four key takeaways from the EU elections in Denmark

Broadcaster to look into popular series after sexism accusations in documentary

The popular music series Toppen af Poppen will be investigated, broadcaster TV2 said, after a new documentary by fellow broadcaster DR revealed a culture of sexism and harassment on the programme.

The show, in which groups of famous Danish musicians arrange and perform cover versions of each other’s songs, has run for several years. Participants in the documentary Sexisme i musikbranchen said a member of the backing band on the show repeatedly made inappropriate sexual remarks during production and filming.

“We will take everything that has come out into account and revisit the entire matter to make sure everything comes out,” Toppen af Poppen programme director Dorthe Thirstrup told newswire Ritzau in a written comment.

Rejsekort app rollout paused over privacy error

The app version of Denmark’s transport card Rejsekort, launched earlier this year, will not be made available to new users at the current time after a privacy issue was detected.

An ongoing rollout of the app has been paused because it does not anonymise users’ location data, media Ingeniøren first reported.

While some 60,000 users have so far been given access to the app, it will not move any further in the immediate future.

The company that developed the app previously said that users’ location data was anonymous but has since stated this is not the case, according to the report.

You can read more on that story here.