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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.

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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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POLITICS

Denmark’s Social Democrats overtaken by left-wing ally in new poll

The Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti, SF) has become the party with the most support in Denmark for the first time in a new opinion poll.

Denmark’s Social Democrats overtaken by left-wing ally in new poll

A new poll from Voxmeter places SF as Denmark’s largest party, should it be replicated in an election vote, with an 18.8 percent share of the vote.

The Social Democrats, traditionally the largest party on the left, received 18.4 percent in the poll. That represents a large drop in support compared to the 2022 general election, when the Social Democrats gained 27.5 percent and went into coalition government with two parties on the right of centre.

The poll result for SF gives it a share 8.3 percent larger than it gained in 2022 and continues the centre-left group’s recent success after becoming the largest Danish party in the EU parliament in the EU elections this month.

Speaking on EU election night, SF leader Pia Olsen Dyhr said the party’s excellent result could be used as a “catalyst” for a new political landscape in Denmark.

The EU election result can fuel further gains for SF when the next general election comes around, Dyhr said in the midst of her party’s celebrations.

“There’s an alternative to this government. There’s an alternative that wants [more] welfare and [to do more for] the climate and we are willing to deliver this in the EU parliament,” she told broadcaster DR.

“It gives us a tailwind and enthusiasm for the party and it means people will be even more ready for local elections next year and the general election further ahead,” she said.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Is left-wing party’s EU election win good news for foreigners in Denmark?

Another notable observation from the poll is that is the worst for the Social Democrats since the 2022 election and since Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen became the party’s leader in 2015.

In 2013, when former leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt was prime minister, the party’s polls dropped as low as 15.8 percent, but they recovered after Frederiksen took over to win the 2019 election.

The other two parties in the coalition government – the Moderates and Liberals (Venstre) – are also struggling in opinion polls.

The new poll gives the Liberals 9.7 percent – compared to 14.7 percent at the EU election and 23.5 percent in 2019.

For the Moderates, the 6.5 percent polling is better than the 5.9 percent achieved by the party in the EU election, but less than the 9.3 percent it gained in 2023.

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