Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Friday
Politician clarifies after Ecco ‘collaborator’ criticism, costs mount at Nordic Waste landslide, more schools may have issues with student behaviour and other news stories from Denmark on Friday.
Politician rows back ‘collaborator’ criticism of Ecco employees
Liberal (Venstre) party MP Jan E. Jørgensen has partially rowed back on comments made earlier this week in which he appeared to compare people who work for shoemaker Ecco with World War II collaborators.
Jørgensen used the term værnemager, which refers to Danes who protected the interests of the German occupiers in World War II, when discussing people who work for Ecco, one of the few Danish companies which has refused to withdraw from Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
After Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen distanced himself from the comments, Jørgensen followed up with a clarification, saying his criticism was aimed at Ecco’s leadership, not the company’s 600 employees in Denmark.
“It is first and foremost the leadership that should be criticised,” he told Radio 4.
“I’m sorry my comments were twisted to single out [Ecco’s] staff as collaborators. Because that’s not my view,” he also said in a Facebook post.
Vocabulary: værnemager – collaborator [with occupying force]
Nordic Waste landslide response costs 3.4 million kroner per day
The response to the December landslide at the Nordic Waste plant in Randers Municipality cost the municipality an average of 3.4 million kroner per day up to January 20th, the local authority said in a published account of the costs.
The total amount spent protecting the area from potential environmental damage following the landslide has been calculated at 217 million kroner between December 19th 2023 and February 20th.
More money has been set aside by the government for ongoing clean-up work at the site, but Randers Municipality officials say it will not go far enough.
The municipality wants Nordic Waste, which declared itself bankrupt after the landslide, to be held responsible for the costs.
READ ALSO: Danish village no longer under threat from Nordic Waste landslide
Vocabulary: at afværge – to avert / ward off
Behaviour issues at more schools in Odense
After parents recently raised an alarm over violent behaviour between children at Agedrup School in Odense, local authorities said the issue is unlikely to be limited to a single school and that they want additional input from schools.
Elected official Susanne Crawley Larsen of Odense Municipality said that she wanted school leaderships to make it known if they were experiencing elevated levels of antisocial or violent behaviour between students.
“That would address how you can go about discussing the general conditions at state schools instead of talking about a(n individual) school’s response to an issue and an undignified declaration of non-confidence in a head teacher,” she said.
In February, 100 parents signed a letter expressing concerns about abuse between minors at Agedrup School.
Vocabulary: mistillid – no-confidence
Denmark to consider asylum applications from Palestinians in Gaza
The Danish Refugee Appeals Board (Flygtningenævnet) is to consider asylum applications from Palestinians from Gaza, the authority said yesterday.
The Refugee Appeals Board’s coordination committee (koordinationsudvalg) has decided that conditions in Gaza have reached “a requisite level of extreme execution of violence” that article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights can be violated.
That justifies granting asylum to applicants from Gaza under Denmark’s immigration laws, it said.
Vocabulary: voldsudøvelse – acts of violence / execution of violence
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Politician rows back ‘collaborator’ criticism of Ecco employees
Liberal (Venstre) party MP Jan E. Jørgensen has partially rowed back on comments made earlier this week in which he appeared to compare people who work for shoemaker Ecco with World War II collaborators.
Jørgensen used the term værnemager, which refers to Danes who protected the interests of the German occupiers in World War II, when discussing people who work for Ecco, one of the few Danish companies which has refused to withdraw from Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
After Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen distanced himself from the comments, Jørgensen followed up with a clarification, saying his criticism was aimed at Ecco’s leadership, not the company’s 600 employees in Denmark.
“It is first and foremost the leadership that should be criticised,” he told Radio 4.
“I’m sorry my comments were twisted to single out [Ecco’s] staff as collaborators. Because that’s not my view,” he also said in a Facebook post.
Vocabulary: værnemager – collaborator [with occupying force]
Nordic Waste landslide response costs 3.4 million kroner per day
The response to the December landslide at the Nordic Waste plant in Randers Municipality cost the municipality an average of 3.4 million kroner per day up to January 20th, the local authority said in a published account of the costs.
The total amount spent protecting the area from potential environmental damage following the landslide has been calculated at 217 million kroner between December 19th 2023 and February 20th.
More money has been set aside by the government for ongoing clean-up work at the site, but Randers Municipality officials say it will not go far enough.
The municipality wants Nordic Waste, which declared itself bankrupt after the landslide, to be held responsible for the costs.
READ ALSO: Danish village no longer under threat from Nordic Waste landslide
Vocabulary: at afværge – to avert / ward off
Behaviour issues at more schools in Odense
After parents recently raised an alarm over violent behaviour between children at Agedrup School in Odense, local authorities said the issue is unlikely to be limited to a single school and that they want additional input from schools.
Elected official Susanne Crawley Larsen of Odense Municipality said that she wanted school leaderships to make it known if they were experiencing elevated levels of antisocial or violent behaviour between students.
“That would address how you can go about discussing the general conditions at state schools instead of talking about a(n individual) school’s response to an issue and an undignified declaration of non-confidence in a head teacher,” she said.
In February, 100 parents signed a letter expressing concerns about abuse between minors at Agedrup School.
Vocabulary: mistillid – no-confidence
Denmark to consider asylum applications from Palestinians in Gaza
The Danish Refugee Appeals Board (Flygtningenævnet) is to consider asylum applications from Palestinians from Gaza, the authority said yesterday.
The Refugee Appeals Board’s coordination committee (koordinationsudvalg) has decided that conditions in Gaza have reached “a requisite level of extreme execution of violence” that article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights can be violated.
That justifies granting asylum to applicants from Gaza under Denmark’s immigration laws, it said.
Vocabulary: voldsudøvelse – acts of violence / execution of violence
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