A roundup of the latest news on Tuesday

Danish People’s Party largest in blue bloc after new poll

A new poll by Voxmeter after Denmark’s election on March 24th has shown that the far-right Danish People’s Party are now the largest party in the right-wing ‘blue bloc’, with 10.3 percent.

The poll, which was carried out between March 30th and April 5th, showed that support for the party has increased since the election, where they tripled their voter share since 2022, receiving 9.1 percent of votes. The Liberal Party and Liberal Alliance were, however, larger than the Danish People’s Party in the election.

According to the new poll, support for Liberal Alliance has fallen from 9.4 percent in the election to 8.7 percent afterwards, with the Liberal Party only slightly ahead on 8.8 percent compared to the 10.1 percent they received on March 24th.

Support for the Conservatives has also risen from 7.6 percent to 8.8 percent.

The far-right Citizens’ Party, which has already seen two of its four MPs excluded from the party, has fallen from 2.1 percent to 1.6 percent, meaning that it would not make it past parliament’s 2 percent threshold if a vote were held today.

Danish vocabulary: største blå parti ‒ the biggest blue (conservative or right-wing) party

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More than 400 insurance claims already made after storm Dave

Storm Dave hit Denmark over the Easter weekend, with hurricane-force winds of 37.4 metres per second, or 134 kilometres per hour, measured in some areas.

The worst of the storm is over for now, leaving damaged homes and fallen trees in its wake.

Insurance company If Forsikring has received around 150 insurance claims, it wrote in a press statement, while GF Forsikring has received 120 and Codan has received 140, according to the respective companies.

GF Forsikring said in a statement that it expects the final number of claims to rival those of storm Otto in 2023, where it saw 1,111 claims from affected customers.

The companies said that a large number of claims refer to damaged roofs and homes, often to do with fallen trees or branches. There are also reports of greenhouses which have been blown over, fallen roof tiles and broken flagpoles.

Seven out of ten claimants are from northern Jutland, If Forsikring’s head of housing Helene Ibsen told the Ritzau newswire.

Danish vocabulary: orkan ‒ hurricane

Government negotiations have restarted after Easter

Negotiations to form a new government have restarted, with ‘royal investigator’ Mette Frederiksen, who has been nominated to lead negotiations, calling an unnamed list of parties to negotiations on Monday and Tuesday. The press were not allowed to attend meetings on Monday.

Frederiksen said in an Instagram post that negotiations are “hard this time”.

Left-wing party the Red-Green Alliance told the Ritzau newswire that it was scheduled to talk to Frederiksen at 9am on Tuesday, along with The Alternative.

Frederiksen said prior to Easter that her goal is to form a government with her own party, the Social Democrats, as well as the Green Left and the Social Liberal party. Together the three parties would have 68 seats, far below the 90 needed for a majority. They will therefore need to secure the support of other parties.

Danish vocabulary: vi genoptager forhandlingerne ‒ we are restarting negotiations

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Leader of Danish Liberals to rest after emergency operation

Troels Lund Poulsen, the leader of the Liberal Party, had an emergency eye operation on Saturday evening. He wrote in a post on Facebook on Monday that he has been told to rest for seven to ten days.

“The operation thankfully went well and I’m doing well given the circumstances,” he wrote, describing his issue as an “acute eye illness,” while expressing his thanks to staff at Glostrup Hospital.

With negotiations to find Denmark’s new government ongoing, this means that Poulsen will not be present if the Liberals are called into meetings.

Danish vocabulary: akut ‒ acute/emergency