SHARE
COPY LINK

OBAMA

Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September

Former US president Barack Obama will visit Denmark for the second time in 12 months to give a talk in Aalborg at the end of September.

Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September
Former US President Barack Obama in Kolding last year. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

Obama’s September 28th stop in North Jutland would have fallen in the same month as the now-postponed official state visit of his successor, Donald Trump, on September 2nd and 3rd.

The 44th president of the United States last came to Denmark in 2018, when he gave a talk for business leaders in Kolding, and also visited while in office.

READ ALSO: Obama uses Denmark speech to warn against 'racial', 'nationalistic' politics

Bill Clinton was the first sitting president to visit Denmark when he visited in 1997. George W. Bush came to the Scandinavian country eight years later in 2005. Obama visited Denmark in 2009 as part of the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen.

Obama’s latest trip to the country was announced by venue Musikkens Hus in northern city Aalborg, which will play host to the event “A Conversation with President Barack Obama”.

Musikkens Hus CEO Lasse Rich Henningsen, who will act as moderator at the event at which guests will be invited to ask questions, said he was looking forward to the occasion.

“President Obama is one of the people I look up to most in the in the world, so I’m hugely looking forward to meeting him,” Henningsen told Ritzau.

The invitation-only Aalborg event is primarily for business leaders, who will form the majority of the audience along with around two hundred students from Aalborg University.

Tickets will cost invited business leaders between 3,500 and 8,500 kroner, while students will attend for free, Henningsen said.

The Musikkens Hus foundation expects the event to break even, while Obama’s fee is undisclosed, Henningsen said.

The visit will be the first to Aalborg by a former US president.

“I’m in not a second of doubt that this will be a new climax for Aalborg and all of North Jutland,” the city’s lord mayor Thomas Kastrup-Larsen said in a press statement.

“I’m delighted that one of the world’s most prominent people sees potential in visiting Aalborg to share his visions about such topics as leadership and entrepreneurship,” he added.

READ ALSO: Trump baby blimp to fly over Denmark protests

Article updated on August 21st, 2019 to reflect President Trump's postponement of his September 2nd-3rd state visit to Denmark.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FOOTBALL

Danish cup final stopped after fans break virus rules

The Danish Cup final was interrupted for almost a quarter of an hour because fans refused to comply with the social distancing rules inside the stadium, police said.

Danish cup final stopped after fans break virus rules
Fans of Aalborg during the match at the Blue Water Arena in Esbjerg. Photo: Claus Fisker/Ritzau Scanpix
The two finalists, Aalborg (AaB) and SonderjyskE, were each allocated 750 tickets for the match in Esbjerg on Wednesday evening.
   
During the first half, “the referee had to suspend the match for up to 15 minutes, when the AaB fans refused to stay in the designated seats and huddled together in violation of the Covid rules,” Sydjylland police said on Twitter.
   
Pictures show members of the Aalborg staff unsuccessfully encouraging their supporters to return to their designated seats.
 
   
 
Between 40 and 50 of the fans were expelled from the ground and put on a bus and sent back to Aalborg with a police escort.
   
The match resumed after 14 minutes and ended in a 2-0 victory for SonderjyskE, who won the competition for the first time.
   
The police also tweeted that they arrested some fans for letting off flares.
   
The increased crowd for the match represented a loosening of Denmark's earlier coronavirus rules limiting attendance at a football match to 500 with a minimum distance between them of two metres.
   
On Tuesday, the Danish government said it would allow 500 fans into each  section of the stadium and that would have to keep one metre apart.
   
In Copenhagen, up to 10,500 fans will be able into Parken, Denmark's largest stadium which can hold 38,000, FC Copenhagen club communications manager Jes Mortensen told AFP on Tuesday.
SHOW COMMENTS