Students forced to take exams

The government wants to push students through their education quicker by taking away state-allocated student allowance (SU) if students miss exams. The idea, which the government has proposed as part of its SU reform, means that students will automatically be signed up to exams that can only be missed due to specific reasons, such as illness. Combined with demands for the universities, the proposal is expected to generate hundreds of millions of kroner to state coffers. – Jyllands-Posten

To work, or not to work

Many Danes believe that there are jobs for everyone if the unemployed really wanted to work, according to a report. The report, compiled by YouGov for metroXpress newspaper, indicated that 35 percent of Danes believe that everyone could find work if they lowered their demands a bit. But labour experts disagree, saying that there are simply not enough jobs available and further suggesting that the public has been influenced by the unemployment debate raging in the media. – metroXpress

Opposition wants to halt business taxes

Opposition party Venstre (V) wants a guarantee that there won’t be any new taxes and fees aimed at the business sector for the next 30 months leading up to the next parliamentary elections.  V's leader and the former prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said he is tired of the government continuously adding and taking away taxes that affect business, such as the sugar tax, and has set the issue as one of his party’s main priorities for the upcoming growth-package negotiations. – Politiken

"We need to cut and some people are going to feel it"

Konservative party leader Lars Barfoed wants the opposition parties to unite around an all-encompassing 2020 economic plan. At the heart of the plan should be zero growth in the public sector, he said. In an interview with Berlingske, Barfoed said that the opposition parties "need to have the courage to tell Danes openly" that cuts to the public welfare system are necessary. In contrast to fellow opposition party leader, Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Venstre), Barfoed said that it is not enough to say that the same level of welfare can be attained while also making cuts. "We can't solve everything by just doing things smarter," Barfoed said. "We need to cut in some areas where some people are going to feel it." Venstre's political spokesperson Ellen Trane Nørdby disagreed however, insisting that "it is very much possible to do things more effectively." – Berlingske