Nye Borgerlige has been delayed in its efforts to publish Charlie Hebdo’s Mohammed cartoons in Danish newspapers. The ad campaign was intended as a show of support after the murder of Samuel Paty, who showed his classroom a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.

The party attempted to contact the legal representative at Charlie Hebdo for the right to use the drawings in its campaign.

However, the request was rejected after a misunderstanding.

Rights rejected
Lars Kaaber, the press manager for Nye Borgerlige, has blamed Charlie Hebdo’s lawyer.

“There was an initial misunderstanding. Apparently, we expressed ourselves so poorly in French that they thought we wanted to buy the rights to the works themselves, not just to use them for just one occasion,” he told DR.

“They told us that the artists weren’t interested. So we have now sent a further email to explain what the advertising campaign is about.”

Leader thrown under bus
Asked whether it was strange to announce the advertising campaign before acquiring the rights to use the drawings themselves, Kaaber suggested to BT that it was [party leader] Pernille Vermund who had jumped the gun in announcing the campaign on her Facebook page.

Lars Kaaber expects the party will be granted permission to use the cartoons imminently.

Tensions rising
Meanwhile, greater police protection appears to be in place outside several locations in Denmark, including the French Embassy, with PET concerned that  the terror threat is increasing.

Berlingske and Weekendavisen have signalled that they are prepared to run the advert, if and when they receive it.

And although Jyllands-Posten, the orchestrator of the original Mohammed Cartoons, has said it will not run the advert, several other parties, including Dansk Folkeparti, have been sharing potentially offensive depictions on their social media platforms.