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After ten years, dispute over illegal hand railings on Fur island nears its end

A ten-year dispute over a hand railing on a lookout post on Fur, a Danish island in the Limfjord, may finally be resolved.

Published: 13 November 2022 09:55 CET

Hill

The year-long battle over railings on the Danish island of Fur may soon be over. Photo by Nicholas Beel / Unsplash

Updates to the Museum Act, which Acting Culture Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen implemented this summer, could end the dispute on the hand railing, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten reports.

The change in the law came into force at the end of the summer. Thus, it seems that the railing, which a group of pensioners put up, can remain standing.

Until now, no railings have been allowed on tumuli such as this.

According to Jyllands-Posten, the argument for the ban was “to protect historical monuments from destruction”.

A ten-year-long dispute

Ten years ago, during an inspection, the Danish Cultural Heritage Agency discovered that a railing had been installed at the stairs to the Bette Jens Hyw lookout post.

From there, people usually enjoy a view of Mors, Thy, and Himmerland. The railing was removed after the inspection.

A group of residents then began to put up new railings in protest against the ban on railings. Every time, the agency and Skive Municipality acted, removing new hand railings.

Halsboe-Jørgensen is not the first minister to have visited the disputed site.

In 2019, then Minister of Culture Mette Bock also visited Fur. She refused to lift the handrail ban at the time, saying that if she were to give permission to Fur, she would also have to give permission to such actions everywhere else.

However, the residents continued to put up railings.

“We have been dealing with it for a few years now and put up five railings,” Anton Simonsen told Jyllands-Posten.

He has lived on Fur since 1964. Now, however, his year-long battle for the railing may soon be over, as this week, Skive Municipality decided to send out an application for dispensation from the railing ban.

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What has Denmark got planned for the 175th anniversary of its constitution?

What’s the background to the Danish Constitution?

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Denmark (Danmarks Riges Grundlov) was signed by King Frederick VII on June 5th 1849 and marked the end of the absolute hereditary monarchy under which Denmark had been ruled since 1661.

After it was signed Frederick VII reportedly declared, with wonderful Danish bathos, “that was nice, now I can sleep in late in the mornings”.

Before 1661, Denmark had in theory been an elective monarchy, with the new king elected by the country’s nobility. In practice, the crown was normally inherited, but the nobility could and frequently did, use the election process to demand concessions.

The shift to a constitutional monarchy was put in motion by Frederick VII’s father, Christian VIII, as a way of protecting the monarchy from the wave of revolutions then sweeping Europe.

In March 1848, following Christian’s death and Frederick’s coronation, there was a march on Christiansborg Palace led by the National Liberals, Denmark’s first political party, demanding a constitutional monarchy.

Frederick agreed to their demands and included many of the party’s leaders in a new cabinet, which appointed a Constitutional Assembly to work on the country’s first constitution, which was signed that June.

Under the constituion, Danes gained freedom of association, freedom of belief, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and property rights.

Only men over 30 who owned their own home initially had the right to vote – about 15 percent of the population. Women did not get the right to vote until 1915 and 18-year-olds had to wait until 1974.

Why is this year’s celebration special?

The 50th, 100th and 150th anniversaries of the Constution were all major national events in Denmark, with the 150th in 1999 featured a Children’s Parliament Day when 178 pupils from 60 primary schools met at the main hall in the Christiansborg parliament and had to agree on on ministers, discuss and vote through nine laws, which were passed to the then Social Democrat Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

The 200th anniversary in 2049 will also presumably be a very big deal.

But the 175th anniversary is nonetheless more significant than a normal year, and there’s quite a bit planned.

What’s happening in parliament for the celebrations in 2024?

King Frederik X and Queen Mary will attend celebrations at the parliament in Christiansborg, starting with a church service at 8am at the The Holmen Church just across the canal from the parliament.

When the service is finished at 9.40am, the Royal Couple and others attending the service will cross over to the parliament where an event will be held at the Landstingsalen, where the Landstinget, Denmark’s upper house of parliament, used to hold its debates until it was abolished in 1953.

At the event, the Speaker of the Parliament, Søren Gade, will give a speech, as will Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the President of the Supreme Court, Jens Peter Christensen, with the three representing the executive, legislative and judicial functions of the state.

Both the church service and the event at the Landstinget will be broadcast on Folketinget TV.

Between 11.15am and 12am, there will be reception in the Samtaleværelset (the conversation room), and the Vandrehallen (the walking hall).

What’s happening outside parliament?

Podcast

The parliament has produced a six-part podcast together with the Royal Family, which will run through the history of the Constitution. You can find that here.

Singing

On June 1st, the Saturday before Constution Day, there will be an evening of Fællessang, or group singing, broadcast from 8pm on DR1, with people in Denmark encouraged to join in at home. The event will be led by the singer Katrine Muff and the television host Johannes Langkilde.

The event will feature many of the most-loved songs by N. F. S. Grundtvig, who was a prominent member of the assembly which drew up the constitution in 1848.

Grundtvig, a priest, song-writer and politician – also established Denmark’s system of free schools.

Ultraforslag

In an update on the Children’s Parliament from 1999, DR Ultra, the public broadcaster’s channel for young people, has been working with schools on a digital platform where they can propose changes to the law in Denmark, and then vote on the proposals which have been made. One of the proposals with the most votes will then be presented to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Anyone under 18 can vote, and according to DR, “one of the proposals with the most votes will be presented to the Prime Minister”.

This seems to give the channel some leeway to select which proposal will be put forward, as, predictably, many of the most popular proposals at the moment involve reinstating “Great Prayer Day” or Store bededag as a public holiday.

Currently, however, a proposal to allow students to “come to school later” appears to have the edge.

Celebrations at DR Byen

Denmark’s public broadcaster DR will also hold a celebration at the DR Byen, its headquarters in Ørestad, on Constitution Day itself, working together with the parliament. The event will feature speeches, music and debate panels, between 9am and 7pm.

According to DR, Denmark’s Education Minister Mattias Tesfaye will be present, as will Emma Holten, the Danish-Swedish human rights activist and celebrity debater, and Knud Romer, the novelist and advertising executive.

There will be an event featuring Børste, the hedgehog that is the star of one of the channel’s most popular children’s cartoons, there will be democratic children’s theatre, the presentation of an award for ‘The New Voice of the Year’, or Årets Nye Stemme, and even more group singing.

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