Special flight returns Danes from Middle East, major conservative party wants to leave international conventions, and two PM candidates in TV duel. Here’s the news from Denmark this Monday.
Specially-arranged flight from Middle East lands in Copenhagen
A flight arranged by the Foreign Ministry to assist Danes stranded in the Middle East landed last night with around 155 passengers on board, broadcaster DR reports.
The flight left from Dubai and was planned by the ministry for people unable to return home from the Middle East after airspace was closed amid the United States and Israel’s war on Iran.
TIckets for the flight were not cheap at 10,500 kroner but the special departure, which also landed in Egypt, was sold old.
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen last week said the Foreign Ministry would assist Danes in the region but could cover the cost of return travel.
Two PM candidates in TV debate
Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Liberal (Venstre) leader Troels Lund Poulsen, who are both seeking election as PM on March 24th, met in a live television debate yesterday evening.
Commentators have praised Poulsen for holding ground against Frederiksen and landing a blow on the incumbent PM by criticising her new wealth tax policy as a “tax on workplaces.”
Much of the debate, broadcast by national channel TV2, focused on pesticides, with Frederiksen coming out strongly in a discussion over the necessity of a national ban on spraying pesticides. Poulsen’s party wants local rules, while the Social Democrats want a blanket ban.
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Liberal Alliance party wants break with human rights conventions to stop asylum
The libertarian party Liberal Alliance has announced it wants Denmark to reject all “spontaneous” asylum seekers, meaning asylum seekers not taken in through quota arrangements, even if that means leaving international human rights conventions.
The move makes Liberal Alliance the first party not on the far-right to support leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN’s Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This could be done by leaving the conventions and then applying to rejoin with a Danish opt-out, according to the party.
“To this very day we have no control over how many and to whom we give asylum in Denmark. With the current system you can travel through several safe countries and apply for spontaneous asylum in Denmark,” leader Alex Vanopslagh told right-wing newspaper Berlingske.
Immigration Ministry figures show that the number of asylum seekers accepted by Denmark in 2025 was the third-lowest total since 1998.