Pizza Hut shuttered in Denmark, animal charity reports pig farmers to police, politicians get tax bills and more news from Denmark this Friday.
Pizza Hut Denmark bankrupt after brief return
A 13 Pizza Hut restaurants in Denmark are to close after the Danish franchisee, Nordic Holdco, declared itself bankrupt.
The Nordic director for Pizza Hut, Nina Ljungdahl, and administrator Anders Hoffmann Kønigsfeldt confirmed the bankruptcy to newspaper Helsingør Dagblad.
“A bankruptcy order was issued on Thursday morning. It covers all 13 restaurants operated by the company,” Kønigsfeldt said.
Pizza Hut’s demise in Denmark comes a little over a year after it announced its return to the Danish market after 15 years away, with plans to open 40 restaurants.
Many of the locations that were opened were former Domino’s Pizza outlets. That company has also left the Danish market, shutting down in 2023.
Animal charity files police report against pig farms after documentary
Animal protection charity Dyrenes Beskyttelse has reported three farmers to the police in the wake of a blockbuster TV2 documentary which revealed conditions of animal neglect at major Danish pig farms.
In a statement, the organisation said the documentary shows clear violations of animal protection laws.
The documentary footage shows dead animals as well as severely malnourished, dehydrated and dying piglets and young pigs, it noted.
“We watched the TV2 documentary with deep concern, and it is so far beyond acceptable that the police must respond to it,” Dyrenes Beskyttelse director Britta Riis said in the statement.
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The three pig farmers in question – Søren Søndergaard, H.C. Gæmelke and Ulrik Bremholm – have all responded to the documentary, either in statements online or media interviews.
Søndergaard said in a Facebook post that he takes animal welfare seriously “even though the documentary seems to show it differently” and noted that his farms had passed unannounced inspections from authorities.
“These are serious issues and I want to stress that they are neither acceptable nor in line with the animal welfare standards at my barns,” Bremholm wrote in a statement on his website on Wednesday, adding that he has taken action to address the issues raised in the programme.
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MPs or former MPs to get tax bill for travel deductions
Sixty-eight members of the Danish parliament were not entitled to tax-free mileage payments they received for driving their own cars to work between 2021 and 2024, parliament has confirmed.
That means the payments, which amount to a total of 664,500 kroner, have been reported to tax authorities and the politicians will have to return them.
“The amount has been reported to the Danish Tax Agency and will be included in the members’ taxable income for the years 2021–2024,” parliament stated.
The identity of the 68 politicians has not been disclosed, or which ones remain members of parliament following changes after the 2022 election.
Social Democrats want media outlets checked for ‘bias’
The Social Democratic party is proposing a study to set out the political leanings of the country’s media organisations.
The party, which suffered a stinging defeat in recent local elections and is the senior partner in the coalition government, wants researchers to look into political bias at the country’s media outlets.
The study would set out political leanings in journalists’ work at public service media such as broadcasters TV2 and DR as well as private organisations like newspapers.
Social Democratic media spokesperson Mogens Jensen stated that private media are allowed to have a political profile.
“But it would be good to get an idea of how that looks so that Danes have an insight into the type of media they are exposed to,” he said in comments reported by news wire Ritzau.