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FEATURE

Danish ex-minister quits party after impeachment trial fallout

The former immigration minister Inger Støjberg has announced she will leave the opposition Liberal (Venstre) party and continue in parliament as an independent.

Published: 4 February 2021 12:57 CET
Danish ex-minister quits party after impeachment trial fallout
Inger Støjberg. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The announcement comes after a majority of Liberal party lawmakers voted in favour of sending the former minister to an impeachment court over an illegal order she issued while in office.

She had previously stepped down as deputy leader of the Liberals over the issue.

“This is endlessly hard for me, but it couldn’t be any different. In the period I’m in now, being an independent is the best way I can continue to fight for the values I stand for,” she told the local Skive Folkeblad.

She also cast doubt in the interview on the Liberal party’s chances of winning an election with leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen at its helm and said the party’s current stance on immigration was not strict enough.

“I don’t think he (Ellemann-Jensen) will become prime minister,” she said.

Støjberg and Ellemann-Jensen have repeatedly clashed as the enquiry into her illegal order and subsequent move for an impeachment trial progressed in parliament.

The former has long been a divisive figure in Danish politics, not least because of her hardline policies and often-populist image while immigration minister.

These have included publishing anti-refugee advertisements in Lebanese newspapers, posting a picture of a celebratory cake on social media after passing a 50th law curbing immigration, and a law enabling Danish authorities to confiscate valuable items from refugees.

She was, however, the architect of a successful apprenticeship scheme for refugees while immigration minister, and defended the scheme when it was attacked by the far right.

According to Danish law, she could face anything between a fine or a prison sentence of up to ten years, should the impeachment trial find her guilty.

The leaders of Denmark’s two far-right, anti-immigration parties, the Danish People’s Party and Nye Borgerlige (New Right), both said on Thursday morning that Støjberg would be welcome to join them, news wire Ritzau reported.

The former minister is not the only high profile departure from the Liberal party in recent weeks. On January 1st, former prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced he would hand in his membership, also to continue

READ ALSO: Why Denmark’s former immigration minister will face impeachment trial

 

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FEATURE

Greenland foreign minister axed over independence remarks

Greenland's pro-independence foreign minister Pele Broberg was demoted on Monday after saying that only Inuits should vote in a referendum on whether the Arctic territory should break away from Denmark.

Published: 28 September 2021 07:57 CEST
Greenland foreign minister axed over independence remarks
Greenland's pro-independence minister Pele Broberg (far R) with Prime Minister Mute Egede (2nd R), Danish foreign minister Jeppe Kofod and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2nd R) at a press briefing in Greenland in May 2021. Photo: Ólafur Steinar Rye Gestsson/Ritzau Scanpix

Prime Minister Mute Egede, who favours autonomy but not independence, said the ruling coalition had agreed to a reshuffle after a controversial interview by the minister of the autonomous Arctic territory.

Broberg was named business and trade minister and Egede will take on the foreign affairs portfolio.

The prime minister, who took power in April after a snap election, underscored that “all citizens in Greenland have equal rights” in a swipe at Broberg.

Broberg in an interview to Danish newspaper Berlingske said he wanted to reserve voting in any future referendum on independence to Inuits, who comprise more than 90 percent of Greenland’s 56,000 habitants.

“The idea is not to allow those who colonised the country to decide whether they can remain or not,” he had said.

In the same interview he said he was opposed to the term the “Community of the Kingdom” which officially designates Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, saying his country had “little to do” with Denmark.

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953 and became a semi-autonomous territory in 1979.

The Arctic territory is still very dependent on Copenhagen’s subsidies of around 526 million euros ($638 million), accounting for about a third of its budget.

But its geostrategic location and massive mineral reserves have raised international interest in recent years, as evidenced by former US president Donald Trump’s swiftly rebuffed offer to buy it in 2019.

READ ALSO: US no longer wants to buy Greenland, Secretary of State confirms

Though Mute Egede won the election in April by campaigning against a controversial uranium mining project, Greenland plans to expand its economy by developing its fishing, mining and tourism sectors, as well as agriculture in the southern part of the island which is ice-free year-round.

READ ALSO: Danish, Swiss researchers discover world’s ‘northernmost’ island

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