Løkke meets Rubio in US, coalition party wants to scrap coffee tax, mosquito numbers low and more news from Denmark this Tuesday.
Løkke discusses Ukraine and Gaza in meeting with Rubio
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday during an ongoing Danish visit to the US involving Løkke and Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
Løkke and Rubio discussed both Ukraine and Gaza but not President Donald Trump’s pursuit of Greenland, news wire Ritzau reports.
The Danish foreign minister took the meeting as an opportunity to point out that Løkke highlighted that Europe has “taken the lead” in supporting Ukraine and now accounts for nearly 70 percent of total aid.
“There is a continued need for the US to maintain its support for Ukraine’s defence, including the specialised weapons capabilities that only the US can provide in the short term,” the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Løkke ruled out ahead of the meeting any discussion of Greenland, which Trump continues to claim must be taken over by the US for security reasons.
“[Talks on Greenland] would require preparations on both sides,” he said to broadcasters TV2 and DR.
“It would also require me to have my Greenlandic counterpart with me,” he said, referring to Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt.
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Fewer than half of restraining order requests are granted
Men and women who feel harassed by a former partner or stalker often struggle to get a restraining order approved by the police, according to the Danish Stalking Centre.
The burden of proof needed to obtain a restraining order in harassment cases is too high, the centre said in a press release.
Fewer than half of all restraining order requests over the last ten years have resulted in an order being issued, newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad reports based on official data. Of the 1,256 requests for restraining orders last year, 502 were granted, the newspaper writes.
The Danish Stalking Centre said the relatively high number of rejections reflects the high demands on evidence for a restraining order to be granted.
“It’s problematic that the burden of proof lies with the victim when applying for a restraining order. As things stand, it takes far too much documentation to get one issued,” the centre’s director, Rikke Nue Møller, told Kristeligt Dagblad.
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Coalition party wants to scrap coffee tax
Coffee is one of a number of everyday items to have undergone steep price increases in Denmark in recent years. The Moderate party, which is part of the coalition government, wants to respond by removing a tax, thereby cutting the cost for consumers.
“The coffee tax is an outdated charge on an everyday staple for Danes, and we believe it should be abolished, not least because global coffee prices have risen significantly since 2021,” acting tax spokesperson Ammar Ali said to Ritzau.
The price of coffee is now 25 percent higher than it was a year ago despite a slight dip in recent months following promising harvest prospects in Brazil.
Danes are among the world’s most devoted coffee drinkers, consuming an average of 6.6 kilograms of coffee per person each year. Despite this, Denmark is one of only a small number of countries to retain a coffee tax. The Danish tax was introduced in 1930 as a levy on luxury goods.
The Moderates do not have an agreement with the rest of the coalition to scrap the tax but say they will work to obtain a parliamentary majority for the proposal.
Fewer mosquitoes after dry spring
Mosquitoes can be a major pest in Denmark during the summer, but they are less prevalent this year than usual, researchers say.
Numbers were at record lows in May, June and the start of July according to Videnskab.dk, which cites data from the mosquito tracking site myggetal.dk.
Denmark’s driest spring in decades is the reason for the lack of blood-sucking flies according to René Bødker, a mosquito researcher at the University of Copenhagen.
“Normally, there are puddles in forests and fields, but in April and May this year, they simply weren’t there,” he told Videnskab. This means mosquitoes haven’t been able to hatch as they normally would in spring, he explained.