Morning Briefing – Friday, October 25

The Copenhagen Post’s daily round-up of the front pages and other major Danish news stories

Oct 25, 2013

Voters abandoning ‘Luxury Lars’
A new poll shows the approval rating for Lars Løkke Rasmussen (V), the opposition leader, taking the steepest nose-dive in the three years DR has reported on the statistic. The voter flight comes in the wake of comments in parliament in which Rasmussen appeared to grossly over-estimate the price of a pair of shoes, as well as revelations that he spent 770,000 kroner on first-class travel while head of GGGI, a tax-payer funded climate organisation. The poll shows 30 percent of Danes support Rasmussen as their choice for prime minister. Over the past year, his approval rating has averaged over 50 percent. The number of voters with a negative opinion of Rasmussen has risen to 53 percent, from 39 percent in the previous poll. – DR Nyheder

Autism schools’ profits a concern for city
Two privately run schools specialising in teaching students with autism and similar disorders will be investigated by the city after it was revealed that they have turned multi-million kroner profits each year since 2008. The city pays the schools as much as 50,000 kroner per student each year. The city underscored that turning a profit was not illegal, but it was concerned the schools were doing so at the expense of special-needs children. “It’s completely inappropriate to make money off children that need extra help,” said Tobias Børner Strax, a city official. Most other special-needs schools are operated by non-profit organisations. – Politiken

Uranium ban lifted, but battle with Copenhagen remains
By a single-vote margin, Greenland’s ruling coalition yesterday passed a measure to overturn that country’s ban on mining uranium. The move comes despite the opposition of a majority of the population and environmental groups. Ruling party Siumut defended the measure, citing the economic benefits. The self-governing territory must now grapple with Copenhagen, which controls foreign and security policy for the entire kingdom of Denmark, over whether it has the right to decide what happens to the uranium mining companies extract. – T he Arctic Journal (read full story – in English)

Two oil firms pull out of North Sea
Anger over the government’s decision to change taxation rules has led Bayerngas, a German oil drilling company, to abandon a 337 million kroner investment in the North Sea. EWE, another German company, has also announced it was giving up its licence to explore for oil together with Bayerngas and Wintershall, a third German firm, in an area expected to contain 100 million barrels of oil. EWE said its decision was part of a general plan to reduce its oil drilling activities. The tax minister, Holger Nielsen, said he fully expected two other oil firms to take over the vacancies. – Erhverv & Økonomi

Editorial Excerpt | Not surprising, just disastrous
Spying isn’t something only the Americans do. Still, revelations that the US may have – and probably did – eavesdrop on Angela Merkel’s mobile phone go over the line. […] It is not a surprise that the US could do it, and it’s not really a surprise that they might actually have done it, but the fact that it was revealed could wind up being nothing short of disastrous for trans-Atlantic relations. – Jyllands-Posten

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