Liberal party leader Troels Lund Poulsen said over the weekend that he wants Denmark to leave the Council of Europe Convention on Nationality, referred to in Danish as statsborgerretskonventionen.
The convention prevents Denmark from stripping citizens of Danish nationality if they hold dual citizenship, including if they are convicted of a crime. One of its main purposes is to prevent statelessness.
The party announced the decision on its website with leader Poulsen, who is also the Minister of Defence, then telling newspaper Berlingske that “I believe the combination of challenges means we must now be willing to take this extra step.”
The announcement marks both a break within the coalition government on the issue and agreement between the Liberals and the four right wing opposition parties – Liberal Alliance, Conservatives, Denmark Democrats and Danish People’s Party.
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Although they currently govern with the Social Democrats and Moderates in the coalition, the Liberals are more conventionally allied with parties on the right of Danish politics.
Under the convention, citizenship can only be withdrawn if the crime is considered to seriously endanger the state’s “vital interests.”
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has previously rejected the possibility of the government withdrawing from international conventions, saying they are necessary as part of the rules-based international order.
Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund of the Social Democrats told Danish media on Monday he is “focused on using the major institutions we’ve built together” when it comes to issues such as deporting foreign nationals or dual citizens convicted of crimes.
“‘If your concern is getting control of the number of foreign nationals who commit crimes in Denmark, and that is very much my concern, then it is actually the European Convention on Human Rights, and the way it is used and interpreted, that is decisive, far more so than the Convention on Nationality,” Stoklund said in Brussels, where he is due to meet other EU ministers.
The proportion of foreign nationals who are granted Danish citizenship and later receive an unconditional prison sentence is very small.
In June, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told parliament’s Naturalisation Committee (Indfødsretsudvalg) that 17 of the 27,028 people who became Danish citizens as a “main applicant” between 2017 and 2024 had received an unconditional prison sentence.
That amounts to 0.06 per cent.
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