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Question: Will Iceland and Norway ever join the EU?
#1
Iceland, but not Norway
 
#2
Norway, but not Iceland
 
#3
Both
 
#4
None of them
 
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Total Voters: 178

Author Topic: The Great Nordic Thread  (Read 201288 times)
politicus
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« Reply #100 on: August 02, 2014, 08:26:51 PM »

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde (IP), the only politician convicted after the crash, is going to be Icelands next Ambassador to the US. Yuck.
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politicus
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« Reply #101 on: August 08, 2014, 02:25:39 PM »

No less than three out of eight Conservative MPs are now former party chairmen, must be some kind of record. But since Pape isn't an MP at least they wont make it to 50% ex-chairmen.
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politicus
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« Reply #102 on: August 10, 2014, 02:43:43 PM »
« Edited: August 11, 2014, 05:57:10 PM by politicus »

Compared to Schlüter times, which kind of voters Conservatives have lost.

In the 80s, where Conservatives was bigger than Venstre, they had large groups of public employees (types like customs officers, policemen and postal workers), small business owners and generally a majority of centre-right voters in suburbia and most towns outside of the Liberal heartland in Western and Central Jutland. Those types mainly vote Venste these days.

Venstre shred its image as a country party and conquered suburbia in the 90s and (re)established itself as the major centre-right party. Basically the Conservative window of opportunity was after the post war urbanization had left the Liberals vulnerable in the 60s and until the Liberal leadership managed to modernize the party.

The Conservatives wasted most of the 70s on a bitter internal feud between a left winger with strong business credentials Erik Haunstrup-Clemmensen and a right wing lawyer, Erik Ninn-Hansen. So the 80s was really their one shot. In the mid 70s when Erik and Erik had almost destroyed the party, Schluther took over and made them strong again. But after Schluther was forced out of office on the Tamil scandal (illegal denial of refugee status to Tamils) another civil war broke out between the "social conservative" (in the Euro sense, not the American) left wing and the true blue right wingers and the compromise candidate selected, a provincial police detective named Bemndt Bendtsen, was a flop. More flops followed and in the meanwhile the Liberals secured their position as the mainstrem centre-right party for good.
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politicus
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« Reply #103 on: August 13, 2014, 07:39:46 AM »

There are a interesting rumour going around about Søren Pape Poulsen, that he's gay and in fact married to another man. He was asked about by the tabloid Ekstra Bladet in a interview and his answer was that he didn't talk about his private life.

It seems that it's not a just rumour

http://www.thelocal.dk/20140813/conservative-leader-im-gay-so-what



Well, its not an issue if you are open about it, but still not a thing you can just say is irrelevant if you are leader of a party with at least some reservations aobut full equality for homosexuals.

Also, the football financing thing actually sounds a bit worse than I thought.
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politicus
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« Reply #104 on: August 13, 2014, 08:33:36 AM »
« Edited: August 13, 2014, 08:47:15 PM by politicus »

I agree that the football financing thing will likely not be a big issue (football is too popular for that..), its just that there is a bit more meat on that bone than I thought.

On the other hand it is the first time a party leader has been involved in those shenanigans and the Conservatives are branding themselves as the party for orderly, decent and moral folks, so they are more vulnerable about those tings than others.

I still think Pape could have used being gay as an advantage if he had just said it instead of the "that's a private matter" stuff, since having a gay leader makes the party appear more modern, which they desperately need.

EDIT: Pape has denied that his sexuality will have any influence on party politics. Officially the MPs are free to vote as they please on matters regarding gay rights, since its an "ethical question". He will not change that or make gay rights a priority in any way.

Its interesting that he is a devout Christian. The Conservatives skipped the "God" part of "God, King and country" in the 60s, but he has emphasized, that most people are more Christian than they think because Christianity and Christian values are so integrated in our culture.

Also, unlike his two immediate predecessors he doesn't rule out being in government wit the DPP, but states that the party is too small to be in government at the moment. This will ruffle some feathers among more class conscious conservatives, who despise the vulgar and primitive DPP.

Being the adopted son of a smallholder couple in rural central Jutland his class background is also clearly different from most conservatives.
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politicus
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« Reply #105 on: August 13, 2014, 08:42:43 PM »
« Edited: August 13, 2014, 08:53:35 PM by politicus »

Well, they have lost a lot of wealthy, young, urban voters to Liberal Alliance, so old fashioned is hardly the way to go. They need an image that can combine classic conservative values like personal responsibility and thriftiness with being modern and open minded.

Not that Pape will necessarily help with the WYU demographic, the guy may be more of a right winger on value issues than he first appeared (and those types hate the DPP).
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politicus
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« Reply #106 on: August 26, 2014, 10:15:19 AM »

What is this Danish Whisky Belt you referred to ? I'm curious.

Its a nickname for the wealthy suburbs along the coast north of Copenhagen (the area between Hellerup and Rungsted/Vedbæk).
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politicus
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« Reply #107 on: September 03, 2014, 07:37:17 AM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 09:19:53 AM by politicus »

I have no issue with hunting whales, but I have issues with Faroes being stuck in the Middle Ages.

Old traditions are not necessarily bad or cruel. Its a communal procedure with an egalitarian distribution of the meat to the community.

Its also a humane way of killing. They break the spine with a short spear which kills the dolphins instantly. You can argue about the stress from the whales being driven into shallow water, but its still a short process compared to a cow or pig going to the slaughterhouse. They only hunt flocks that are already close to the coast.

This is a media thing because the sea is "painted" red with blood and that looks dramatic on camera. Otherwise its a more humane procedure than many other forms of hunting and definitely better than the process connected with slaughtering farm animals (often transporting them for hours in crammed lorries, pigs biting and screaming etc.).

Also, if the Faroese should abolish dolphin hunting they would use more meat from industrial style agriculture.
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politicus
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« Reply #108 on: September 03, 2014, 08:53:10 AM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 12:37:54 PM by politicus »

To none-Danes: The whole HTS not getting a cushy EU job and Vestager getting one is a pretty significant thing regarding Danish politics because it basically removes any possibility of the government surviving. A leadership change to Mette Frederiksen combined with a  new more average Joe friendly agenda was their last hope and the Social Liberals losing a strong leader, who while far from beloved was at least capable of explaining the rationale behind the government reforms, also weakens it considerably.

On a related note: Denmarks biggest union 3F - which mainly organizes unskilled labourers - has decided not to back SD in the next election. Instead trying to set their own agenda. This underlines how big SDs problems with their traditional base have gotten.

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politicus
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« Reply #109 on: September 03, 2014, 01:32:14 PM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 01:36:16 PM by politicus »

The eruption of the Bárðarbunga (cool name..) volcano in Iceland has now been going on for 4 1/2 days and the lava stream will soon reach the glacial river Jökulsá á Fjöllum which will cause great explosions if it happens.
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politicus
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« Reply #110 on: September 03, 2014, 03:40:41 PM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 03:44:25 PM by politicus »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.

I'm not intolerant and myopic. I'm thinking they are neglected and not offered decent opportunities from the Danish government. They are being treated as a backward colony, no wonder they stay stuck there.

Apart from foreign policy, the justice system, currency matters and defense they have the status of an independent country. So it isn't really up to the Danish government to develop the islands. They get a state grant of about 110 mio. US dollars a year from Denmark, but are otherwise self financing.

While its more social conservative than most of mainland Scandinavia the Faeroes are not a backwards place.
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politicus
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« Reply #111 on: September 04, 2014, 03:58:39 AM »
« Edited: September 04, 2014, 04:07:34 AM by politicus »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.

I'm not intolerant and myopic. I'm thinking they are neglected and not offered decent opportunities from the Danish government. They are being treated as a backward colony, no wonder they stay stuck there.

They have had home rule since 1948, which mean outside the administration of the judicial branch, the military, citizenship, foreign and monetary policy, they have autonomy, they receive annual 400 million $, they're represented in the Danish parliament. So no they're not treated as a colony, they're treated as a autonomous region, which they are, and if you think we should start some kind of cultural imperialist agenda to "civilise" them, well that's you're welcome to think, I just find it intolerant and myopic.

Region would be too weak a word. The Faroese are recognized as a people and  a nation (in the cultural sense) by the Danish government and are increasingly treated as a separate country more  than an autonomous part of the realm, among other things because they are outside of the EU, this was last seen when we had to boycot their fishing vessels from using Danish harbour facilities when they had the fishing conflict the the EU.

The Danish grant ("bloktilskud") to the Faroes was 633 mio. kroner in 2013, so 100 mio. $+, not  even close to 400 mio. $

But you are far from alone in assuming we give them a lot more money than we do:

http://www.knr.gl/da/nyheder/et-flertal-af-den-danske-befolkning-tror-f%C3%A6r%C3%B8erne-f%C3%A5r-flere-milliarder-i-bloktilskud-hvert-%C3%A5

For non-Scandinavians: The article states that a majority of Danes believe the Faroese get billions of kroner from the Danish treasury every year. 48%, like Ingemann, believe its 2 billion+ and 8% even thinks its 10 billion+ (which would be close to 2 billion $ for a population of 48.000!).
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politicus
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« Reply #112 on: September 05, 2014, 10:22:33 AM »
« Edited: September 05, 2014, 10:36:44 AM by politicus »

Denmark has agreed to participate in the US led "core coalition" to coordinate the fight against ISIS. The other countries asked are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Canada and Australian. So we are the only small country. Hercules transport planes to carry weapons to the Kurdish forces and humanitarian aid will be the main Danish contribution, but it might also include deployment of special forces later on.

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politicus
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« Reply #113 on: September 24, 2014, 12:20:36 PM »
« Edited: September 24, 2014, 12:37:12 PM by politicus »

Two weeks before the Liberals hold their party congress popular former Minister of Defence Søren Gade has resigned as Chairman of the interest organization Foods and Agriculture due to a dispute over the future organizational structure. When party chairman Lars Løkke was in trouble in the expense affair this summer Gade was mentioned as a possible new party chairman, but chose not to challenge Løkke. He denies any interest in returning to politics, but that hasn't stopped the media from speculating.

----------

A more realistic challenge to LLR would a comeback for his predecessor.

A poll shows that 44% of Liberal voters wants Lars Løkke as chairman, while only 18% prefer his rival Deputy Chairman Kristian Jensen, but no less than 62% would prefer a return of former chairman Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who resigns as NATO General Secretary on October 1, just before the Congress. With all the trouble going on in the party observers speculate if AFR will try to challenge LLR, if he wins this will basically make him a shoe-in to return as Prime Minister. The question is if AFR wants to return to Danish politics, or is looking for some lucrative international consultancy or lobbyist job. Anyway, LLR now looks a lot less secure in the chairman seat than he did in June after strongarming Jensen into not challenging him.
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politicus
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« Reply #114 on: September 25, 2014, 05:03:39 AM »
« Edited: September 25, 2014, 06:31:35 AM by politicus »

DR is running a story about the DPP bleeding members from their more traditional conservative wing - especially in Jutland.

Its not big names: local board members, ex-councillors and an ex- Youth League chairman, but still interesting that their conservative members seems to had enough of the party left wing turn. Normally the party is very disciplined (apart from racist cooks, who once in a while mess up things), but with old SDs and union representatives drifting to DPP and party leadership trying to appeal to dissatisfied public employees and unemployed workers things seems to have gotten a tad too red for the genuine right wingers.

Its the leaderships policies on public spending, employment benefits, being against cuts in corporate taxes and flirting with the trade unions, that they are dissatisfied with.

As one of them says: "When they are to the left of the Social Democrats on distribution policies, then its simply too much".

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politicus
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« Reply #115 on: September 26, 2014, 11:34:05 AM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 06:47:22 AM by politicus »

Danish contribution to the fight against ISIS will be 7 fighter jets (F16), 1 Hercules transport plane, about 140 guys to man them and provide support functions and 100+ military instructors to train Iraqi Kurds and the Iraqi army.  All in all 280 soldiers. They are only to operate in Iraq, not Syria. According to the Ministry  of Defence there is an agreement that the US and the Arab allies operate in Syria and the other Western countries in Iraq.

Only the Red-Green Alliance is going to vote against the contribution, which will be send off next week.
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politicus
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« Reply #116 on: September 30, 2014, 03:09:32 PM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 01:50:50 PM by politicus »

Greenlandic PM Aleqa Hammond has gone on leave while an expense scandal is being investigated. She used roughly 20.000 $ on private hotel bills, shopping and airfares which she only repaid on September 8 after media exposure. Its not big money, but Greenlanders are fed up with politicans using public money for their own good, so the public pressure is intense. Her predecessor as PM Kuupik Kleist has also used a smaller sum of public money for private purposes and has relinquished his seat in the Inatsisartut (Parliament) - he was leaving politics after the next election anyway, but a sad way to go for the best Premier Greenland has ever had IMO. The opposition demands an election, but Hammond managed to avoid that for the time being - keeping her 1 seat majority coalition intact despite strong internal criticism in the government parties.

Hammond was buhed out by 500-600 protesters  (in a town with 17.000 inhabitants), when she left the annual church service in connection with the opening of Parliament today.

pics from demo
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politicus
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« Reply #117 on: October 01, 2014, 07:53:16 AM »
« Edited: October 01, 2014, 02:02:12 PM by politicus »

The centre-right party Atassut has left the Greenlandic government, which is now a one party minority government consisting only of PM Aleqa Hammond's social democratic Siumut.

Before the party's decision to leave their Deputy Chairman Steen Lynge (who was Minister of Health) had already left the government together with two Siumut ministers: Nick Nielsen (Minister of Culture and Church) and Jens-Erik Kirkegaard (Minister of Business and Labour Market). With Atassut and the two Siumut veterans out of office Hammond's government looks increasingly shaky.

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politicus
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« Reply #118 on: October 01, 2014, 08:11:05 AM »
« Edited: October 01, 2014, 11:11:53 AM by politicus »

So will he government fall to a vote of confidence, or is the departing party still giving supply?

(Also I thought the Greenland governing coalition contained the Inuit Party as well. Have they already departed?)

Atassut still supports the government for the time being. It seems they will await the inquiry on Hammond's conduct. If the government falls they will likely be without any influence in the next 4 years, so they are clearly dragging their feet.

Partii Inuit left the government last autumn because of resistance to uranium mining being allowed (after a lot of internal strife).

To clarify: The two Siumut ministers who have left has done so as a protest against Hammond, not because they are involved in abuse of expense accounts themselves.

EDIT: There seems to be consensus among those in the know that Hammond will have to resign if the audit report released October 23 is as critical as the preliminary orientation from the auditers the Inatsisartut has received. If she has to go Siumut will try to elect a new PM, and will most likely be backed by Atassut, that fear an electoral defeat. But with a one seat majority for the two parties, you only need one maverick going it alone for this to fail.
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politicus
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« Reply #119 on: October 01, 2014, 01:45:09 PM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 10:40:58 AM by politicus »

Things are moving fast in Greenland.

Atassut has witdrawn their support for the government and demands an election to be called, so Hammond's government is now in minority in the Inatsisartut, even if the small Inuit Party with a single representative stays supportive.

Aleqa Hammond has stepped back as Chairman of Siumut (but not as PM) and the main board of Siumut has indicated that they are united behind Kim Kielsen (48) as acting PM while Hammond is on leave. Until an extraordinary congress can be called to elect a new chairman the party's Deputy Chairman Jørgen Wæver Johansen is in charge.

Parliament has been sent home and will according to its President not be reassembled until Tuesday, at which point an election will likely be called. But the opposition (incl. Atassut) demands an extraordinary meeting as soon as possible and they have a slim 16-15 majority.
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politicus
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« Reply #120 on: October 01, 2014, 02:18:54 PM »
« Edited: October 01, 2014, 02:24:57 PM by politicus »

The background for all this is that Siumut lost power in 2009 after ruling Greenland since the establishment of home rule in 1979 because the party was perceived as corrupt and nepotistic. They then regained power i 2013 on a populist anti-establishment campaign after promising to have changed their ways. Hammond's government has however been involved in several affairs in the old style (like giving her husband a juicy consultancy job, hiring a chief of her administration that had twice been fired for abuse of trusted funds and having her chief legal adviser fired and escorted out of the government building for not whitewashing an illegal hiring procedure etc. etc.) Add to this the exposure of a credit card abuse back when she worked for Greenland Tourism and you get a picture of someone who has always had a dodgy moral and a problematic relationship to trusted funds. So this seems to be the famous straw.. and her Siumut colleagues simply don't want to be seen as identical to the pre-2009 "Old Siumut" with its legacy of incompetence, camaraderie and petty fraud since this would be toxic for the party's future as the natural party of government in Greenland
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politicus
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« Reply #121 on: October 01, 2014, 03:11:54 PM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 07:57:31 AM by politicus »

Acting PM Kim Kielsen has just announced that Greenland will be holding an election at November 28!  
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« Reply #122 on: October 02, 2014, 08:45:27 AM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 09:14:08 AM by politicus »

Right after stepping down as NATO General Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen launched his new  international consultancy firm Rasmussen Global dealing in lobbyism & communication and offering lectures, so he is doing a "Tony Blair light" instead of returning to Danish politics.

The front image on the consultancy page:


Conservative leader Søren Pape Poulsen (42) presented his Dominican boyfriend Josue Medina Vasquez (29) at the party's annual congress, so he has moved quite a bit since starting out claiming it was irrelevant whether or not he was gay. Not sure how a much younger Latino boyfriend will affect his image with Conservative core voters, though, even if Vasquez is not your traditional toy boy.

Vasquez is educated in international relations and the nephew of the Dominican President Danilo Medina. He is due to start a job at the Dominican embassy in Ottawa, so its going to be a long distance relationship.
 
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« Reply #123 on: October 09, 2014, 04:01:20 PM »
« Edited: October 11, 2014, 09:59:45 AM by politicus »

Liberal Alliance leader Anders Samuelsen now suggests that all spontaneous refugees (=non UN quota) seeking asylum in Denmark should be send to Danish run and owned refugee camps outside of Denmark ("a little piece of Denmark" as he says), LA wants the government to negotiate deals with Jordan, Lebanon or Israel about selling plots of land for Danish run refugee camps to receive Syrian refugees. Israels ambassador declined to comment before there is an official request.. Deep silence from Jordan.

DPP has suggested this a few days ago (they said prefer Kenya.. which they got ridiculed for) and claims that the number of asylum seekers would drop drastically if asylum seekers could not actually get into Denmark

The Liberal leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen calls the proposal from Liberal Alliance "interesting". The moderately Libertarian LA has hitherto been seen as the most humanistic party on the Danish (centre-)right wing, but a cost/benefit approach to the matter has made them agree with DPP on this.

A total stop for asylum seekers on Danish territory will be a key DPP demand to support a coming Liberal government and with Liberal Alliance on board the pressure increases, many Liberals would probably also support this - not the Conservatives, but they are of no importance with the current poll numbers.

Social Liberal foreign affairs spokesperson Zenia Stampe says it reminds her of the idea from the 1930s of sending European Jews to Madagascar.

EDIT: The Liberal-Conservative government actually tried the external refugee camp solution back in 2004, when then Integration Minister Bertel Haarder (Lib.) tried to persuade the Kenyan government take Somali refugees from Denmark to a Danish run camp in exhcange for aid in developing their internal asylum system, but the Kenyans declined, so its all a bit "old hat".
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politicus
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« Reply #124 on: October 10, 2014, 06:20:01 AM »
« Edited: October 10, 2014, 09:04:54 AM by politicus »

Minister of Justice Karen Hækkerup has left the Danish government and is new CEO of Food and Agriculture after former Minister of Defence Søren Gade. She is replaced by SD no. 2 Mette Frederiksen and the SD "multitool" Chairman of their Parliamentary group and Nyrup era veteran Henrik Dam Kristensen is replacing Frederiksen as Minister of Employment.

Its a change from the SD right wing to the left wing on Justice, but it wont matter so close to an election.

The Red Greens call it a democratic problem, that a cabinet member switches directly to becoming CEO for a powerfull interest organization.

Losing one of her most popular ministers is bad news for HTS and yet another sign that many in the SD top don't think the government can get reelected. It will be interesting to see who the next rat to abandon the sinking ship will be.
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