Danish gzovernment negotiations paused today, summer temperatures forecast for coming weekend and other news from Denmark on Monday.
Danish government negotiations paused on Monday
Troels Lund Poulsen, leader of the Liberals, is currently leading negotiations to find Denmark’s next government.
In a post on Instagram on Sunday evening, Poulsen announced that negotiations, which continued over the weekend, would take a break on Monday.
“All the parties have different wishes and we will take Monday to calculate a number of different political proposals before we continue with negotiations,” he said.
He added that all parties involved agreed that negotiations are difficult.
“But we’re working at full speed and doing our best,” he said.
Denmark’s ongoing government negotiations are the longest in the country’s history. Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen led negotiations for the first few weeks, with Poulsen taking over last week.
Danish vocabulary: sat på pause ‒ paused, put on pause
Moderates demand to be part of new government
The Moderates, who hold a crucial 14 seats and play a kingmaker role in ongoing government negotiations, demand a place in government in return for supporting a potential coalition, party leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen has said.
“I find it very hard to imagine us not being in government,” Rasmussen said, adding that this is “the way to gain influence”.
It’s still not clear whether Denmark will have a right-wing government, a left-wing government, or a government spanning the centre. The Moderates are officially unaligned ‒ they don’t belong to the right-wing ‘blue bloc’ or the left-wing ‘red bloc’, and Rasmussen has said that he would like a cross-bloc government similar to the outgoing Social Democrat-Liberal-Moderate government.
The far-right Danish People’s Party has also refused to support any government where Rasmussen is a minister, which essentially means a right-wing government is impossible.
Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen has been given two weeks to form a government, with his deadline running out at the end of next week.
Danish vocabulary: den nye regering ‒ the new government
Trump envoy in Greenland this week
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Greenland landed in Nuuk on Sunday for a visit of several days to the autonomous Danish territory, local media reported.
Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry arrived for his first visit in the role and is due to take part in an economic forum in the Greenlandic capital on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Organised by the employers organisation Grønlands Erhverv, the Future Greenland event will bring together investors, political and business leaders to try to encourage investment there.
Landry’s visit comes after international tension over Trump’s repeated claims to the territory, which sparked alarm not just in Greenland and Denmark but across western Europe.
Landry arrived accompanied by around 10 other people and drove off in a convoy of five cars, the local daily Sermitsiaq reported.
The US ambassador to Denmark is due to fly in to Greenland on Monday.
“Together, they will meet with a wide range of Greenlanders to listen and learn with a goal of expanding economic opportunities, building people-to-people ties, and increasing understanding between the United States and Greenland,” said a US embassy statement sent to AFP. (AFP)
Danish vocabulary: Grønland ‒ Greenland
Summer temperatures just around the corner
The weather this week starts with a mixture of rain, clouds and sunshine, before giving us a taste of Danish summer as we near the weekend.
Marie Timm, on-duty meteorologist at Danish weather agency DMI, said that temperatures would reach between 15 and 17 degrees in eastern Denmark on Monday, and with no wind forecast it could be quite pleasant in the sunshine.
In western Denmark, she said, things will be a bit colder, with some rain in the afternoon.
We’re likely to see rain showers for most of the week until Thursday, where the weather will start to improve. Temperatures could reach between 18 and 19 degrees on Friday, potentially even 20 in some parts of Jutland.
On Saturday, it could be as warm as 23 or 24 degrees.
“You should get your parasol and sun cream out, as it looks like we have a really beautiful weekend in store,” Timm said.
“If you’re not working on Saturday and Sunday, you should get outside and enjoy it.”
Danish vocabulary: komme ud og nyde det ‒ get out(side) and enjoy it.