Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Danish opposition unable to force Great Prayer Day referendum

Opposition parties in the Danish parliament will not be able to force through a referendum over the government’s plan to abolish the Great Prayer Day holiday after two parties declined to back the motion.

Published: 27 February 2023 17:27 CET
Danish opposition unable to force Great Prayer Day referendum
People protest the government plan to scrap Great Prayer Day earlier in February. The bill looks likely to pass in parliament after an opposition move to force a referendum on the issue failed. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

Two opposition parties – the Socialist People’s Party (SF) and Liberal Alliance – confirmed on Monday they will not join other opposition parties who say they want a referendum to be held on the question.

The parties who have stated they are in favour are the Red Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), Danish People’s Party, Denmark Democrats and Alternative.

The bill to abolish Great Prayer Day will be voted on in parliament on Tuesday and now looks set to be passed.

Under the rules of parliament, votes from 60 MPs – a third of the total 179 seats – could have sent the bill to a referendum. The four parties can only muster 26 seats between them and therefore needed help from larger opposition groups.

Some opposition parties have been reluctant to support the referendum because of concerns it would result in a “slippery slope” whereby government policy increasingly becomes the subject of referenda.

Red Green Alliance and Danish People’s Party on Sunday stated they would not call for a referendum on any other point in the government’s policy platform, citing this concern as a reason for the clarification.

“I don’t understand why on one hand you can stand on the front line and say it’s stupid and awful to abolish Great Prayer Day, which I agree with, and on the other hand not give the public the opportunity to stop it,” Red Green Alliance lead political spokesperson Mai Villadsen said.

“It’s incredibly disappointing. And it leaves the other parties with shared responsibility for not stopping this,” she said.

The three coalition government parties – the Social Democrats, Liberals (Venstre) and Moderates – want to abolish the springtime public holiday in a move they say will enable increased defence spending to meet Nato targets by 2030, three years ahead of the current schedule.

A bill was tabled by the government in January.

The policy has met with criticism from trade unions, the church and opposition parties, while the military has also distanced itself from the plan. Thousands of Danes took part in a demonstration against it outside parliament earlier this month.

READ ALSO: 

Member comments

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

DANISH TRADITIONS

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

Denmark celebrates the 175th anniversary of its Constitution on June 5th. Here's what the country has planned.

Published: 24 May 2024 12:36 CEST
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. 

SHOW COMMENTS