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What changes about life in Denmark in 2021

The new year will bring about a series of changes for those living in Denmark. Here's a roundup of the big ones to look out for.

Published: 28 December 2020 11:47 CET
Updated: 1 January 2021 10:48 CET
What changes about life in Denmark in 2021
Copenhagen will host WorldPride 2021 in August (pandemic permitting). Photo: Andreas Paulsson/WorldPride
This article will be updated as we find out more changes in the run-up to the New Year. 
 
Brexit will happen 
 
January 1st is the big Brexit day and all British citizens living in Denmark will now have to apply for residency some time in the year. 
 
To avoid a glut of applications, the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (Styrelsen for International Rekruttering og Integration, SIRI) has asked Brits to stagger their applications across the year, depending on their date of birth. 
 
If you were born before 1946, you are supposed to get your application off in January (so hurry up!). For others, we've set out the recommended application dates in this article.  
 
Here's a reminder of some of the other things Brits living and travelling in Europe should know about more generally and here's a summary of some of the unresolved issues from the Brexpats group. 
 
 
Big Ben, the bell in the tower of Westminster, will bong. Photo: Photo: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix
 
Covid-19 lockdown ends
 
On January 17th, the lockdown imposed in December is scheduled to come to an end, meaning (fingers crossed), the reopening of restaurants, bars, cafes, gyms, sports centres, swimming pools, amusement parks, zoos, aquariums, museums, theatres, cinemas, and libraries. 
 
Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen has, however, opted not to reopen until March 27th. 
 
Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens is not reopening until March 27th. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix 
 
 
Coronavirus vaccinations to continue 
 
Denmark expects to to receive almost 50,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine a week in the first three weeks of January, with a total of 148,200 doses scheduled to be given in the “first roll-out”. 
 
According to state broadcaster DR, the plan is to prioritise the residents of elderly care homes in areas with a high infection rate (who amount to about 30,000 people), relatives and carers of people in risk groups (another 30,000 people), frontline staff in hospitals and care homes in areas with a high infection rate (about 35,000 people). 
 
People over the age of 65 with health problems which make them vulnerable will also be a priority in the first roll out. 
 
A further 2.6m doses of Pfizer's vaccine will then arrive “in a couple of months”, according to Thomas Senderovitz, Director of the Danish Medical Agency, allowing everyone else in priority groups to be vaccinated. 
 
Denmark has a pre-purchase agreement with Moderna, meaning it will receive a million doses, perhaps in the next few months. Denmark aims to offer the vaccine to every adult. 
 
Allan Randrup Thomsen, Professor of Virology at Copenhagen University, has told TV2 that he believes it will not be until May that sufficient people had been vaccinated for Denmark to be able to lift restrictions completely. 
 
 
Will Denmark on be on track to meet its climate goals? 
 
The Danish Council on Climate Change will in February rule on whether Denmark's government's current initiatives are sufficient to put the country on track to meet its climate goal of a 70 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. If it rules against, parliament can vote to force the government to put in place more far reaching actions.  
 
 
Will Denmark punch above its weight at the UN Climate Change Meeting? 
 
Between November 1st and November 12th, the world's leaders will converge on Glasgow for the COP 26 conference. Denmark, with perhaps the world's most ambitious climate goal, hopes to use its moral weight to encourage other countries with much bigger emissions to follow its lead.  
 
POLITICS: 
 
Local elections
 
Denmark's 98 municipalities will hold municipal elections on November 16th. Municipalities in Denmark hold elections every four years. One thing to watch is if the New Right (Nya Borgerlige) party, which won just one local seat back in 2017, will see significant growth, or if the Danish People's Party will see a repeat of the dire performance it saw in 2019's general election. 
 
LAWS: 
 
Denmark's new consent law comes into effect 
 
From January 1st, sex that does not have the explicit consent of both parties will be considered rape under law. Read our coverage of the change here. 
 
New cigarette packaging requirements 
 
From 2021, tobacco companies must include a warning on cigarette packaging that cigarette filters contain plastic and can damage the environment. 
 
Ban on mink farming 
 
Denmark's parliament on December 21st voted through a new law banning the farming of mink for the whole of 2021.
 
EVENTS: 
 
Roskilde Festival — The biggest rock festival in the Nordics aims to be back from June 26th to July 3rd. It's sold out, suggesting that many Danes believe that it will happen. The US rapper Kendrick Lamar has signed up to play, suggesting he thinks it will too. 
 
WorldPride 2021 – Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö will cohost the international WorldPride gay pride festival between August 12th to August 22nd. Assuming coronavirus is more or less out of the way, you can expect quite a celebration. 
 
Euro 2020 – The Euro 2020 football tournament, postponed by a year last spring, is due to take place in the summer, with Copenhagen hosting four matches: Denmark vs Finland, on June 12th, Denmark vs Belgium, on June 17th, Denmark vs Russia on 21st June, and a match between the runner up of Group D and the runner up of Group E on June 28th. 
 
 
 

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DENMARK

Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Monday

Find out what's going on in Denmark today with The Local's short roundup of the news in less than five minutes.

Published: 7 June 2021 09:55 CEST
Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Monday
Sunny weather is expected all week this week. Photo: Niclas Jessen/Visit Denmark

Denmark’s former PM names new party Moderaterne 

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s former prime minister, announced on Saturday that his new centre party would be called Moderaterne, the same name as the leading centre-right party in Sweden. 

In a speech held to mark Denmark’s Constitution Day on Saturday, Rasmussen said the new party would attempt to unite Danes with a variety of different backgrounds and political viewpoints. 

“Some prefer mackerel, and others prefer salmon. Some have long Danish pedigrees, others have only recently chosen to live in Denmark,” he said.

What they all have in common, he said, is their love for Denmark, which is “among the best countries in the world”. 

“How do we drive it forward? We are trying to find an answer to that. How do we pass it on to our children in better condition than we received it?” 

Rasmussen said the party would not launch fully until after November’s local elections, but was ready to contest a parliamentary election if the ruling Social Democrats decided to call an early vote, something he said he did not expect to happen. 

Sweden’s state epidemiologist warns Swedes to be careful in “high-infection” Denmark 

After the per capita number of new coronavirus infections in Denmark in recent days overtaking that of Sweden, Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has advised Swedes visiting their Nordic neighbour to be careful to maintain social distancing. 

“You need to keep [the infection rate] in mind if you go there, so that you really take with you the advice you have in Sweden to keep your distance, not stay with lots of other people, and not have the close contact that involves a risk,” he told the Expressen newspaper. 

He said Denmark’s higher infection rate was an obvious consequence of the country’s more rapid lifting of restrictions. 

“They chose to open up society relatively quickly even though they knew that there was a certain risk that the spread of infection would increase,” he said. “Because they had vaccinated the elderly and did not see that it would be that dangerous with a certain increased spread of infection.” 

Nils Strandberg Pedersen, former director for Denmark’s SSI infectious diseases agency called Tegnell’s comments “comical”. 

“It’s comical. It’s Swedish spin,” he told the BT tabloid. “Denmark has registered more infections because we test so much more than the Swedes. It’s not the same as having more people infected in the population.” 

More immigrants to Denmark are getting an education 

The education gap between first and second-generation immigrants to Denmark and people of Danish origin has fallen over the last decade, according to a story published in Politiken based on new figures from Denmark’s immigration ministry. 

An impressive 72 percent of 20 to 24-year-old first and second-generation female immigrants now completing further education of university education, compared to 58 percent in 2010.

Denmark records further 853 cases of coronavirus 

A further 853 people were diagnosed with coronavirus in the 24 hours running up to 2pm on Sunday, a rise on Saturday when 592 cases were detected, but still within the range of 600 to 1350 a day within which Denmark has been fluctuating since the start of May. 

Thorkild Sørensen, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen, told Ritzau that the sunny summer weather was allowing people to meet outside, and vaccinations were having an impact, allowing Denmark to open up without a surge in infections.

On Sunday morning, 138 people were being treated for coronavirus in Denmark’s hospitals, up four from Saturday, or whom 29 were in intensive care. 

Some 40.4 percent of the population has now received at least one dose of vaccine and 23.2 percent have received both doses. 

Sunny summer weather expected in Denmark this week 

Denmark is expected to have warm sunny weather with temperatures of 18C to 23C, with blue skies and little rain, Danish Meteorological Institute said on Monday. 

“This week looks really nice and summery, and it will be mostly dry weather most of the time,” Anja Bodholdt, a meteorologist at the institute told Ritzau on Monday.  “The only exception is Monday, when people in Jutland and Funen might wake up to scattered showers that move east during the day.” 

Danish property market show signs of cooling 

The number of houses being put on the market fell again in May, according to new figures released from Home, one of Denmark’s largest online estate agents. 

According to Bjørn Tangaa Sillemann, an analyst at Danske Bank, the figures suggest that momentum is seeping out of what has been a “scorching” market over the last year, although he said it was unlikely prices would actually fall. 
 
“Although demand seems to be declining, it is still high, and when interest declines, it can also make it less attractive to put your home up for sale than it has been recently,” he said.
 
At Home, 5.1 percent fewer houses were put on the market in May, while the number of apartments put on the market fell 9 percent, and the number of sales fell by 2.1 and 5.7 percent respectively.
 
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