Right wing party wants to make citizenship conditional, Danes abroad could get voting rights, government to fight EU mink ban and more news from Denmark this Thursday.
Party leader wants to make Danish naturalisation conditional
Danish citizenship should be conditional for the first ten years after it is granted via naturalisation, according to ex-immigration minister Inger Støjberg.
The move would need Denmark to leave two international human rights conventions, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the European Convention on Nationality.
Støjberg wants citizenship to be conditional for the first ten years after it is awarded, allowing authorities to revoke it if the new citizen commits a serious crime during that period.
The ex-minister, who received a 60-day prison sentence and was temporarily expelled from parliament in 2021 for issuing an illegal directive while immigration minister, now leads the national conservative Denmark Democrats party.
“We can see that the current government neither has the will nor the ability to challenge these conventions in a way that actually brings about change,” Støjberg told news wire Ritzau.
“That’s why I believe we’ve reached the point where we need to put our foot down and say we must leave these conventions,” she added.
We’ll have more detail on this story in a separate article on our website today.
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Government to consider expanded voting rights for Danes abroad
The government plans to appoint an expert committee to examine how more Danes living abroad might be allowed to vote in general elections, foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has said in an interview with newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Løkke, the leader of the Moderate party, said he believes all Danes abroad should be able to vote in parliamentary elections.
“I realise that’s a far-reaching position. But in principle, I believe that if you are a Danish citizen, you should be able to vote in general elections,” he told the paper.
The Danish Constitution states that only those with permanent residence in the country may vote in general elections, although there are exceptions for certain groups.
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Government to fight EU proposal for mink ban
The government is pushing back against an EU proposal to add American mink to a list of invasive species, news wire Ritzau reports.
The proposal would mean an effective ban on mink, which clashes with the government’s position that it should “remain possible to farm mink in Denmark”, according to a government memo reported by media Zetland.
The minister responsible for the area, Jeppe Bruus, told Zetland he would not comment before the matter had been discussed in parliament.
The media reports that the government will seek parliament’s support in opposing the EU proposal.
The European Commission proposal to list American mink as an invasive species is scheduled for a vote in the EU’s Committee on Invasive Alien Species on June 20th.
Petition for postnatal care for mothers to be debated in parliament
A so-called borgerforslag or ‘citizen’s proposal’ in Denmark has proposed nationwide postnatal clinics with specialised multidisciplinary staff to cater for women who has just given birth.
The petition gathered 50,000 signatures in a matter of days, meaning it must now be debated in parliament, with a bill likely to be tabled by a sympathetic party or MP.
The postnatal care detailed in proposal would replace an existing eight-week checkup with general practitioners, which is part of the current care provided to new mothers in Denmark: