Parliament to have traditional first debate, SAS in court over accusations of misleading passengers, men arrested over massive phone scam and more news this Thursday.
Parliament to hold traditional first debate
After the official opening of parliament on Tuesday, the following Thursday is the customary first day for debate between lawmakers.
The debate is known to be one of the longest sessions of the year and can stretch from its starting time at 8am until after midnight.
During the debate, politicians discuss the prime minister’s speech at the opening of parliament and the government’s political programme for the upcoming year, which is also published as part of the opening proceedings.
The lead political spokespersons from each party take a turn at giving their own speech, in order of the party’s size in parliament, before they in turn take questions from MPs. This can take up to 45 minutes for each spokesperson. After this, the prime minister gets to speak again before the whole process is repeated by any spokesperson who decides to do so.
Last year’s opening debate took 16 hours and finished at 12:45am.
SAS accused of misleading information over cancelled flight during Covid pandemic
Airline SAS is set to defend itself in court in Copenhagen today against accusations of misleading information during the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.
According to the charges, SAS sent emails to customers between March and May 2020 stating that the customers’ flights had been cancelled, even though this was not the case.
The purpose of the emails was to mislead customers, according to Denmark’s consumer ombudsman (Forbrugerombudsmanden), which filed a police report against SAS over the issue.
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Airline customers have the right to a refund if their airline cancels their flight, but not if they cancel their ticket themselves or do not show for a departure.
In the summer of 2020, several SAS customers told broadcaster DR that they had requested refunds because their flights appeared on SAS’s list of cancelled departures. However, many were later informed by SAS customer service that the list was meant to show flights that might be cancelled in the future.
SAS rejects the accusations, the company’s lawyer said to the Ritzau news wire.
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Three man charged over phone scam worth 1.2 million kroner
Three men have been charged with defrauding a 75-year-old man of 1.2 million kroner, Copenhagen Police said in a statement yesterday.
The men, who are aged 24,42 and 48, are in police custody with two of them placed in pre-trial detention. They were arrested on Tuesday.
Police said they subjected the senior citizen to a “comprehensive and well-planned” scam.
They first contacted the man by phone, pretending to be from the police. They then convinced him that he was helping with a secret police operation and got him to make a series of cash purchases of gold bars from various dealers.
The perpetrators then instructed him to hand over the gold, police said.
Airline Norwegian announces low emissions domestic flight in Denmark
Establishing a ‘green’ or zero emissions domestic flight in Denmark was a stated goal of the coalition government when it took office in 2022, and an airline has now been found to operate a flight which goes part of the way to fulfilling that promise.
Low-cost airline Norwegian will introduce the flight from March next year, using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), a renewable alternative to traditional jet fuel made from sources such as waste oils, agricultural residues, or other sustainable feedstocks.
The fuel type can significantly reduce carbon emissions over its lifecycle compared with conventional fossil-based aviation fuel.