Category Archives: Denmark

Mette Frederiksen: the anti-migrant left leader who’s set to sweep to power in Denmark

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Social Democrats leader has dragged her party sharply to the right, say critics

She marked her return on Facebook, with a video straight out of a Quentin Tarantino film, buttoning her jacket, arranging her hair and slipping on stiletto heels to heavy metal music. “I’m ready again,” she declared to camera. “Let’s get this bus rolling.”

Mette Frederiksen, leader of Denmark’s opposition Social Democrats, was in hospital with food poisoning when the prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, called a general election last week, and was two days late joining the campaign.

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Danish far-right party calling for Muslim deportation to stand in election

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Stram Kurs to be on ballot paper for first time after getting required 20,000 signatures

A far-right political party demanding the deportation of all Muslims and the preservation of the country for its “ethnic community” will be on the ballot paper in Denmark for the first time, in a general election due to be called within days.

The Stram Kurs, or Hard Line party, led by Rasmus Paludan – a lawyer who is currently appealing against a conviction for racism – is feared to be on track to gain MPs after recently passing a threshold of voter support needed to stand in the election.

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Finland’s SDP tries to build coalition after narrow election win

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First leftist PM in 20 years may find it hard to build consensus amid splits over welfare system

Finland’s Social Democrats will try to form a coalition government after a narrow win in parliamentary elections that saw left-leaning parties make sweeping gains, despite a stronger than expected showing from the far right.

The centre-left SDP, led by Antti Rinne, a 56-year-old former trade union leader, will have 40 MPs in a fragmented 200-seat Eduskunta (parliament) after winning 17.7% of the vote following a campaign attacking the austerity policies of the outgoing centre-right coalition.

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‘Like the Eye of Sauron’: western Europe’s tallest building planned for tiny Danish town

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Fast-fashion giant Bestseller set to build skyscraper headquarters in Brande, a 7,000-person rural town

Until a local company announced plans to send a 320-metre skyscraper soaring over the surrounding countryside, most people in Denmark had only the haziest idea where Brande, a town of 7,000 people in rural Jutland, even was.

The Bestseller Tower, designed by star architectural studio Dorte Mandrup, will not only be the tallest building in Denmark, but the tallest in western Europe, besting the Shard in London by a crucial 10.4 metres.

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Danish politician’s baby ‘not welcome’ in parliament’s chamber

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Far-right speaker Pia Kjaersgaard tells Mette Abildgaard to remove her child

A member of Denmark’s parliament has said she was ordered to remove her infant daughter from the chamber, causing surprise in a country often hailed as a pioneer in women’s rights.

“You are not welcome with your baby in the parliament’s chamber,” the speaker, Pia Kjaersgaard, a former leader of the far-right Danish People’s Party, allegedly told Mette Abildgaard.

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Artificial archipelago: Copenhagen plans floating Silicon Valley

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Denmark’s capital wants nine new islands to form a sustainable leisure and tech hub – but not everyone is convinced

In the winter fog and drizzle, it is hard to imagine Køge Bugt beach park packed with families, joggers and swimmers. But in summer this artificial beach is one of Copenhagen’s favourite spots. Backed by scrubby dunes and lagoons teeming with birds, the only thing spoiling the idyll is the power station that looms to the north.

“This view is something that is really part of my childhood,” says Arne Cermak Nielsen.

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How to make an incinerator popular? Put a ski slope on it

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Idea of topping municipal plant in Copenhagen with urban ski resort won accolades for Danish architecture firm

It might be the first waste incinerator the neighbours actually want next door. The shop at the foot of the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy project in Copenhagen is packed with families desperate to be among the first to try its unique selling point: the ski slope on the roof.

“I live so close by that I could follow the development,” says Ole Fredslund, who lives in neighbouring Amager, as he helped his sons Felix and Victor strap on their boots as the slope opened its lifts for the first time on Tuesday. “I guess 90% of the focus is on the fact that there’s a skiing hill coming, so in a way it’s very clever. Everybody talks about the ski hill to be, not the waste plant to be.”

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Military buildup in Arctic as melting ice reopens northern borders

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As ice melts and shipping lanes open up, geopolitical tensions are growing and old cold war bases are being reopened

The climate crisis is intensifying a new military buildup in the Arctic, diplomats and analysts said this week, as regional powers attempt to secure northern borders that were until recently reinforced by a continental-sized division of ice.

That so-called unpaid sentry is now literally melting away, opening up shipping lanes and geo-security challenges, said delegates at the Arctic Frontiers conference, the polar circle’s biggest talking shop, who debated a series of recent escalations.

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Iran behind two assassinations in Netherlands – minister

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Foreign minister says there is ‘strong’ evidence Iran directed killings of two Dutch nationals

Iran has been accused by the Dutch government of directing two political assassinations in the Netherlands, triggering EU sanctions against Tehran’s military intelligence service.

The two murders are alleged to have taken place in broad daylight in 2015 in Almere, a city east of Amsterdam, and in 2017 on a street close to the Dutch foreign ministry in The Hague.

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Several killed in rail incident in Denmark

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Reports say tarpaulin from a freight train hit a passenger train going the other way

Danish police say several people have been killed in a train accident on a bridge linking the central islands of Zealand and Funen.

Police did not provide further details about those killed or the number of people injured in Wednesday’s incident, which took place at about 8am local time.

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Growing chatter over Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize prospects

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Now, President Donald Trump's supporters are pushing for him to be the next U.S. leader to win the Nobel Peace Prize - a move that's being met by smirks and eye rolls in Europe, where Trump remains deeply unpopular. But that's not stopping a growing list of champions from pushing the Nobel committee to consider Trump for the world's most coveted diplomatic prize.