Dinamarca

Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen Ritzau Scanpix via Associated Press

EuropaUnión Europea

Dimanche dernier, la reine du Danemark, Margrethe II, a abdiqué le trône au profit de son fils, le très décontracté Frederik X. Monarque la plus ancienne et seule reine restante au monde, Margrethe II a ainsi mis fin à 52 ans de règne jour pour jour. Elle est la première souveraine monarchique à abdiquer la couronne au Danemark en 900 ans. À 83 ans, elle a non seulement participé à moderniser le Danemark, mais aussi toute l’institution de la monarchie danoise.

Diplômé en science politique à l’Université d’Aarhus, le prince Frederik avait pris un pseudonyme pour faire des stages d’étude à l’Université Harvard au début des années 1990.…  Seguir leyendo »

A hospital bed at Maniitsoq Hospital like the one where Greenlandic women in the 60s and 70s received IUDs. © Jakob Lyberth

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

Several historical episodes have recently been at the centre of public debate in Greenland and Denmark, including adoptions of Greenlandic children by Danish families in the 60s and 70s and the so-called “judicial orphans”: lack of inheritance rights for Greenlanders born from unmarried Greenlandic women to Danish men. Now an investigative podcast has revealed yet another example of problematic guardianship from Danish authorities in Greenland: back in the 1960’s and 1970’s Danish health authorities placed thousands of intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD) in Greenlandic women and girls to diminish population growth.

But contrary to prior years, the Danish government now proves to be more open to launch investigations into Denmark’s colonial past in Greenland.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘More than a housing estate, Mjølnerparken is a community.’ A hijab store near Mjølnerparken in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

EuropaUnión Europea,

We make a habit of idealising Scandinavia. Living in Britain, a country of damp sandwiches, dilapidated housing and extortionate gas bills, makes it easy to fantasise about places like Denmark, with its generous welfare state and 37-hour working week. We laud its social philosophies, binge on its politics as dramatised by TV’s Borgen.

The idealised version of this looks like a social democratic utopia in which the state takes care of your worries. It does not look like the experiences of Muhammad Aslam, a taxi driver I spoke to recently while visiting Denmark. Aslam’s story is one that proponents of the Nordic model do not want you to hear.…  Seguir leyendo »

Un centro de pruebas rápidas de covid en Copenhague. Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix vía Associated Press

InternacionalSalud PúblicaEuropaUnión Europea, , ,  

Para los países con altos índices de vacunación, 2022 podría ser el último año en que haya que tomar medidas drásticas contra la COVID-19. Sin embargo, el fin de la pandemia no llegará fácilmente.

Uno se imaginaría que el final de la emergencia sería recibido con inmensa alegría. Pero los conflictos sobre si las escuelas deben permanecer abiertas y sobre el valor del uso obligatorio de los cubrebocas revelan que el solo hecho de que el diagnóstico de esta afección sea más benigno no significa que los funcionarios públicos estén exentos de tomar decisiones difíciles sobre políticas públicas. Una pandemia que empieza a ceder no es el fin del liderazgo sobre la covid, sino que podría hacerlo más necesario que nunca.…  Seguir leyendo »

A Covid rapid-test center in Copenhagen. Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix, via Associated Press

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For countries with high vaccination rates, 2022 may be the last year when strong measures are required against Covid-19. The end of the pandemic, however, will not come easily.

One might imagine that the end of the emergency would be joyfully welcomed. But conflicts over whether schools should remain open and the value of mask mandates reveal that just because the prognosis for Covid-19 has improved does not mean that public officials are absolved from the need to make hard choices about policy. A waning pandemic does not mean the end of leadership on Covid, but may instead mean it’s more necessary than ever.…  Seguir leyendo »

People attend a performance by Danish band the Minds of 99, on Sept. 11, in Copenhagen. (Olafur Steinar Gestsson/AFP/Getty Images)

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On Sept. 10, Danish authorities lifted all pandemic restrictions and pronounced that covid-19 is no longer a “critical threat” in the country. Vaccination rates are high — 86 percent of all eligible citizens 12 and older have received at least one shot, and 95 percent of people 50 and older are fully vaccinated.

Denmark’s death toll during the pandemic was only 450 people per million citizens, compared to 1,982 per million in the United States. How did Denmark, and its 5.8 million people, beat the covid-19 pandemic?

As part of Denmark’s largest behavioral covid-19 research project (the HOPE project), we surveyed more than 400,000 individuals in Denmark and seven other countries.…  Seguir leyendo »

Mass demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark against the Danish government's decision to deport Syrian refugees. Photo by Davut Colak/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

A new law enabling Denmark to deport asylum seekers outside Europe while applications are being processed is the latest in a series of extraordinary and extreme measures targeting immigrants from a government going far beyond those taken by other European countries and the European Union (EU).

Under the new law, proposed by Social Democratic prime minister Mette Frederiksen and comfortably passed by Denmark’s parliament the Folketing in a vote of 70 to 24, asylum seekers would be flown to a faraway third country regardless of where they are from – with one option appearing to be Rwanda which signed a diplomatic agreement in March with Denmark leading to speculation it intends to open an asylum processing facility there.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Nyhavn canal in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Europa,

I wasn’t much of a connoisseur, I admit, in the matter of Nordic cultural differences before I moved to Sweden from Turkey in 2011. Narcissism of minor differences, I’d always thought, complacent in my half-baked knowledge of Viking history and Norse mythology. It took me several years and two seasons of The Bridge (Bron/Broen), the riveting Scandi-noir TV crime series, to realise that the Danes and the Swedes neither resemble nor necessarily like each other.

At first I felt closer to Martin Rohde, the Danish police detective in the series who has to work with his Swedish counterpart, Saga Norén, after a corpse is discovered exactly in the middle of the Øresund Bridge which connects the two countries.…  Seguir leyendo »

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This week, the American people and the world have become much more familiar with Greenland, the world’s largest island. We know that two U.S. presidents, Harry Truman (in 1946) and Donald Trump (Friday) have expressed interest in purchasing it. President Truman quoted a price of $100 million in 1946; we never learned the figure President Trump had in mind. But the offer was moot before it was proffered: Greenland is not for sale, but very much “open for business,” according to Greenland’s foreign minister and the prime minister of Denmark.

Over the past few days, there have been many questions about the possible motivations behind the president’s interest in and enthusiasm for Greenland.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropa, ,

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump has expressed a repeated interest in purchasing Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory that lies between the north Atlantic and Arctic oceans.

While the president’s motives are uncertain, the administration probably sees strategic value in controlling more of the territory. Holding Greenland would provide added leverage in the Arctic, where the United States faces increased competition from Russia and China.

Many took the news as farce, but it’s not the first time a U.S. president has considered buying the ice-covered territory. Secretary of State William H. Seward considered buying both Greenland and Iceland, a project he abandoned after his Alaska purchase deal met with fierce criticism.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Editor’s note: In light of the news that President Trump is interested in purchasing Greenland, we asked Jeff Colgan to update his piece on toxic waste and climate change.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in buying Greenland. Trump is reportedly interested in the territory’s national resources and usefulness to the U.S. military.

But there’s something lurking beneath Greenland’s icy surface that Trump may want to know about: toxic nuclear waste, left over from the Cold War, that may be exposed by climate change that is melting ice at a rapid rate.

What’s more, the United States may owe Denmark — the country Trump would presumably have to make a deal with to buy Greenland — money to pay for the environmental cleanup.…  Seguir leyendo »

Cómo ser danés

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

A Dinamarca se la considera de un modo unánime en todo el mundo la sociedad solidaria e igualitaria por excelencia. La prosperidad, la falta de desempleo, la enseñanza generalizada, la redistribución de los ingresos y los servicios públicos, siempre han estado relacionados, según analistas, sociólogos y economistas, con la gran homogeneidad del pueblo danés, con una ética compartida que fue forjada inicialmente por la Iglesia luterana. La fe ha desaparecido y los daneses son agnósticos, pero la ética permanece. Está demostrado que los pueblos aceptan mejor ser solidarios cuanto más homogéneos son. Esta ley se cumple incluso en Estados Unidos, donde los estados que más redistribuyen, los del norte, son también los más homogéneos cultural y étnicamente.…  Seguir leyendo »

Le pont de l’Øresund, qui relie le Danemark et la Suède. Photo Gustaf Emanuelsson

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración,

Le Danemark s’isole-t-il de plus en plus via sa politique anti- immigration ? Le 12 avril, Inger Støjberg, sa ministre de l’Immigration et de l’Intégration, annonçait au Jyllands-Posten, un des principaux quotidiens conservateurs du pays, sa volonté de rétablir les contrôles à ses frontières avec la Suède. Cette déclaration survenait peu après l’attentat perpétré à Stockholm par un Ouzbek qui avait vu sa demande d’asile refusée. Objectif du gouvernement : protéger le Danemark de l’éventuel retour d’autres migrants illégaux venant de Suède où ils sont estimés à 12 000, selon les autorités.

Cette décision s’inscrit dans un contexte tendu au Danemark depuis les élections législatives de juin 2015.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

The Trump administration isn’t the first government to try to keep Muslims out of a Western country. Many European voters (even anti-Trump Europeans) agree with this goal – and their governments have been simultaneously creeping in that direction.

But few Americans would suspect which country has done so most successfully: Denmark, which many American liberals, including Bernie Sanders, praise for its comprehensive welfare state. That welfare state, however, is apparently intended for a homogenous population. As few Westerners realize, the Danish government has spent the past decade and a half implementing some of the most restrictive immigration policies in the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

On the bus in Norrebro, a multicultural neighborhood in Copenhagen. Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times

EuropaReflexionesIslam y Mundo Árabe,

Anti-Muslim nationalism is blazing in Denmark. Parliament has discussed banning prayer rooms in schools and universities. The right-wing and nationalist Danish People’s Party, now the second-largest party in Parliament, is calling for immigrants to celebrate Christmas to prove their Danishness. To reinforce Danish culture and custom, the town of Randers has asked cafeterias in public schools to serve pork.

Most recently, a man was charged last month with blasphemy for posting a video of a burning Quran on Facebook back in 2015 — a charge that hadn’t been prosecuted since 1971.

This case in particular is emblematic of how misguided the debate about Islam here has become.…  Seguir leyendo »

A recent demonstration against Muslim immigration organized by, “For Freedom” in Copenhagen. Ole Jensen/Corbis, via Getty images

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración,

An exchange in a recent debate on national TV was emblematic of changing times in Danish politics. An 18-year-old high school student named Jens Philip Yazdani was pitted against Martin Henriksen, a member of Parliament for the far-right Danish People’s Party who is the chairman of an important parliamentary committee on immigration, integration and housing. When Mr. Yazdani asserted his Danish identity as someone born and brought up in Denmark, Mr. Henriksen interrupted him.

“This is not how one becomes Danish,” he said, starkly forcing to the fore the old question of what is “Danishness.” In that moment, the nationalist politician signaled an end to the uneasy truce that has long defined the immigration debate in Denmark.…  Seguir leyendo »

La campagne d’Europe de Daech

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y SeguridadEspañaTerrorismoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,
Allemagne

Daech considère le continent européen comme un théâtre intégré d’opérations terroristes. La fermeture toute récente du corridor d’accès des djihadistes à la Turquie est intervenue trop tard pour casser l’élan de la campagne d’Europe, lancée par le bien mal-nommé Etat islamique depuis le printemps 2014. C’est pourquoi il faut élargir les problématiques hexagonales, au mieux franco-belges, pour appréhender la menace djihadiste dans sa réalité européenne. L’Allemagne constituera la première de ces études de cas, suivie du Danemark et de l’Espagne.

UNE DYNAMIQUE FRANCO-ALLEMANDE

La carte ci-dessous rend compte des actions menées ou inspirées par Daech durant un seul mois, de la mi-juillet à la mi-août 2016.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración,

Bientôt, les policiers danois pourront confisquer les avoirs supérieurs à 10 000 couronnes (1465 francs) appartenant aux réfugiés qui demandent asile sur le territoire du royaume. Sauf s’il s’agit de «valeurs affectives» comme certains bijoux. Un large consensus, à l’exception de petits partis de gauche, s’est dessiné cette semaine au Folketing, le parlement, pour voter cette mesure prônée par le gouvernement. Il s’agit d’envoyer un «signal» aux migrants pour les dissuader de venir, s’est justifié le pouvoir sous l’influence du Parti populaire danois (DF), formation nationale-populiste qui dicte l’agenda politique depuis une quinzaine d’années à l’image de l’UDC en Suisse.

Ce signal n’est pas passé inaperçu.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Inmigración

In October 1943, in an act of civic and moral duty, Danish fishermen and resistance fighters transported approximately 7,000 Danish Jews to safety in neutral Sweden. They were ferried over the waters of the Oresund and saved from Nazi extermination camps.

That story of heroism is central to modern Danish identity and it stands in sharp contrast to what is unfolding today. In the past week more than 3,000 mainly Syrian refugees have been arriving from Germany, passing through Denmark and crossing that same stretch of water to Sweden, which has a more open immigration policy, and where they hope to rebuild their lives.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa, ,

The writers of the famous Danish TV series “Borgen” couldn’t have concocted a more shocking episode than the one that unfolded during Thursday’s general elections.

After four years in office, the leader of the center-left government, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, faced a loose-knit group of rightist challengers, led by a former prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen. Both of them lost — leaving the leader of the far-right Danish People’s Party, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, as the election’s big winner and firmly in control of whatever new government emerges.

With 21 percent of the vote, up from 12 percent in 2011, the extreme right is now the second-largest party in Denmark.…  Seguir leyendo »