Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

2022 DANISH ELECTION

KEY POINTS: What are the main policies of the new Danish government?

A public holiday gets the chop, plans for an asylum centre in Rwanda, new climate targets and tax cuts are among several details of the platform for Denmark’s incoming government.

Published: 14 December 2022 14:35 CET
Updated: 14 December 2022 17:34 CET
KEY POINTS: What are the main policies of the new Danish government?
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Liberal leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen and Moderate leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen present the platform for the new Danish government. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Danish party leaders on Wednesday presented the agreement between the Social Democrats, Moderates and Liberals that will put in place a new three-party government. We break down the key policy positions that form the government platform.

Farewell to popular public holiday

In a decision which seems unlikely to be popular amongst the general public, the new government proposes removing a public holiday from the national calendar.

The holiday, Great Prayer Day (Store Bededag) has existed since the 1600s and falls on the fourth Sunday after Easter, giving everyone who works in Denmark an extra long spring weekend.

The new government says it wants to use money saved by scrapping the holiday to increase spending on defence.

READ ALSO: Store Bededag: Why does Denmark have annual ‘Prayer Day’ holiday?

New target for climate neutrality

In what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen calls an “ambitious climate act”, the new government wants to make Denmark climate-neutral by 2045 and reduce CO2 emissions nationally by 110 percent compared to 1990 levels.

Both targets set higher criteria than existing climate goals.

The government will also pursue the existing policy of introducing a CO2 tax on agriculture and the aviation industry.

Reform of tax, including top tax bracket

Several tax reforms are to be introduced which the government says will benefit people at both the top and bottom of the income scale.

A tax deduction for people in full time work, beskæftigelsesfradraget, will be bolstered, as will a special deduction for single parents.

Cuts to the top tax bracket, topskat, are also forthcoming in a sign of concessions to the Liberals, traditionally a party which favours low taxes.

The topskat bracket will be given two additional levels, meaning that the tax rate will be more graduated to increase as earnings go up.

We recently looked at how the existing topskat bracket works.

Plans for Rwanda asylum facility reworded

The former Social Democratic minority government had a long-term objective of moving part of Denmark’s refugee system offshore to a non-EU country – confirmed in 2021 as Rwanda.

Although the target has been kept, the new government appears to have adjusted its focus, saying a centre for asylum seekers outside of Europe should be established under the auspices of the EU or in partnership with other countries.

“The ambition related to an asylum centre is that we create a new asylum system. It is our clear aim that this will be set up – naturally, we want to do it in partnership with other countries or the EU,” Frederiksen said.

However, she added that such a centre could “ultimately” still be the result of a bilateral agreement between Denmark and Rwanda.

READ ALSO: Could a centrist government change Danish asylum plan?

University students face cuts in education reform

The new government plans to spend more money on vocational education programmes for their improvement, but will reduce the length of around half of university Master’s degree programmes, so that they take one year, not two, to complete.

Rules related to the state student grant, SU, will be tightened so that the right to the grant becomes more limited and available for a shorter period related to the time spent in education.

READ ALSO: Denmark plans to shorten university courses to save money

New distribution model for upper secondary school students

A new model to redistribute upper secondary school (gymnasium) students in accordance with their parents’ incomes in parts of Denmark has been scrapped.

The plan had been put in place by the previous government with the objective of ensuring an even mix of students with different backgrounds.

It was strongly opposed by conservative parties, notably the Liberals, and will be replaced by a new model based on transport time.

Cost of living help 

The government will put together an “inflation package” aimed at helping people struggling with high living costs caused by inflation.

This will include a new tax-free 5,000 kroner payment to senior citizens who receive the ældrecheck benefit. That is in addition to an already-agreed 5,000 kroner.

The rest of the cost-of-living package will focus on people who face drastic energy bill increases – primarily homes with independent gas heaters.

A pool of 300 million kroner will also be diverted to help vulnerable families and 50 million kroner to charities which provide help to the vulnerable at Christmas.

Family reunification

The incoming government could break with years of strict immigration laws by easing family reunification rules.

Specifically, the new government wants to change language criteria applied in family reunification cases.

It also wants to halve the so-called “bank guarantee” (bankgaranti), a requirement which demands couples deposit a large sum of money with municipalities while the foreign partner is granted residence under family reunification rules.

We have more detail on this in this article.

Member comments

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

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

EXPLAINED: How immigration speech has split Denmark’s Social Democrats

A speech about immigration and integration, given by a member of Denmark’s ruling Social Democrats in parliament, has caused an uproar among local party representatives but the party leadership, including Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, is sticking to its guns.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:03 CEST
EXPLAINED: How immigration speech has split Denmark’s Social Democrats

Internal dispute within Denmark’s Social Democrats has gained pace and drawn comments from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, after one of the party’s MPs recently made a divisive speech in parliament.

Frederik Vad, who is the immigration spokesperson with the party, the senior partner in the coalition government, said earlier this month during a speech in parliament that Denmark’s immigration debate had to make an “admission”.

“That is an admission that work, education, a house, participation in associations and a clean criminal record are not enough on their own if you are also using your position to undermine Danish society from within,” Vad said.

“A parallel society is no longer a housing area in [underprivileged area] Ishøj. A could alos be a table at the canteen in a state agency or a pharmacy in [affluent] North Zealand,” he said, using the term used to refer to areas of the country subject to special integration laws.

To qualify as ‘parallel societies’, housing areas must have a population of more than 1,000 people, of which more than half are of “non-Western” origin, and must fulfil two of four criteria. For areas with fewer than 50 percent ‘non-Western’ populations, another term – ‘vulnerable area’ – is used instead.

The comments have received criticism from local Social Democratic politicians, initially more junior politicians such as town councillors and later gaining momentum with some city mayors speaking out against Vad, as reported by broadcaster DR.

“Frederik Vad is stigmatising a large part of the population that consists of well-educated, well-integrated and active citizens who contribute to Denmark every single day,” Musa Kekec, a Social Democratic member of the municipal council in Ballerup, told DR.

“We do not appreciate it. It is creating a new myth that integration has failed and that it’s no longer good enough to get an education, speak Danish, contribute to society and have a job – more is required,” he said.

Kekec is one of 18 elected local Social Democratic officials to have sent a letter to the party leadership earlier this week, objecting to Vad’s position.

“It’s important for us to show that we disagree with the rhetoric and suspicion being spread on the part of Frederik Vad,” Kekec said.

The internal conflict over the issue between parliamentary and local Social Democratic politicians is unusual in a party known for a culture in which all members loyally stick to the course set out by party leadership.

Merete Amdisen, the mayor of Ishøj – the municipality singled out by Vad in his comments – was the first mayor to publicly reject them, but several others have since added their voices to the dissent.

“I think you should think very carefully when you speak about people who go to work every single day, look after their children, integrate themselves in society and take part in our associations, in fact do everything we want them to, and who we also happen to need on our labour market,” Gladsaxe mayor Trine Græse told DR.

“I was actually offended – not personally, because I’m not in the target group. But when I heard what he said, I thought ‘that’s not a nice thing for him to say’,” she said.

“Christiansborg politicians should use their powerful voices with consideration and respect for others. Generalisations and pointing the finger at citizens with a different ethnic background as potentially dangerous are the wrong way to go,” the mayor of Furesø, Ole Bondo Christensen said.

In comments earlier this week, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said there was “full support” for Vad from the party leadership.

“There is an ongoing immigration debate within the Social Democrats and in Denmark, but the Social Democrats stand firm on the immigration policy that is currently being pursued in Denmark,” the PM told DR.

“I do not see any stigmatising comments from Frederik. I think he does a good job of pointing out that — of course — you cannot speak generally about everyone. On the contrary, many [immigrants] are doing very well. But those who, for example, commit crime, violence, or are members of [Islamist organisation] Hizb ut-Tahrir, are against our democracy. That is a lack of integration and we must then be able to discuss it,” she said.

Vad has not presented any data to support the claim that people of non-Western immigrant backgrounds with high levels of education and employment are involved in activities of the kind described by Frederiksen.

The junior Social Democratic MP defended his comments by saying they were not a deviation from the existing party line.

“That line is that we have a few problems in some pockets of our society with some people who are educated, have a job and a clean criminal record, yet bring some values ​​with them to work which are problematic,” he said to DR.

“It makes me sad if there are people in the party who think I said something wrong. Personally, I don’t think I have. I made a nuanced statement,” he said.

“People who make an effort, work their socks off, and integrate [into society] with their children should receive nothing but respect and equality,” he said.

“But the people who insist on bringing a culture of honour to work, or who don’t think you need to subscribe to women’s freedom and equality to be part of this society, should see nothing but a hammer falling,” he said.

SHOW COMMENTS