Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Former Danish immigration minister Inger Stojberg, known for her hardline stance in that role, was handed a 60-day prison sentence on Monday by an impeachment court for having illegally ordered the separation of under-age couples seeking asylum.

Stojberg was accused of knowingly breaking the law in 2016 by ordering the separation of all asylum-seeking refugee couples where at least one was under 18 years of age, a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

COPENHAGEN, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Iceland's current government coalition, consisting of three parties from the left to the right, has agreed to continue for another term after they bolstered their majority in a Sept 25 general election.

Katrin Jakobsdottir of the Left-Green Movement will stay on as Prime Minister of the government, which has provided a period of stability since 2017 after years of political scandals and distrust of politicians following the 2008 financial crisis.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Swedish lawmakers will vote next week on whether Magdalena Andersson, who briefly became the country’s first female prime minister before resigning after a budget defeat, can form a minority government, the parliament speaker said Thursday.

20 Oct 2021; MEMO: An online petition which demands that Denmark should stop the Syrian repatriation policy that puts in danger the residency of a number of Syrian refugees living in the country, got the required number of signatures to be submitted to Parliament, AFP reports.

According to the report, the petition, defending the rights of Syrian people who escape from the war-torn country, has been signed by more than 53,000 people. It needed 50,000 signatures for Parliament to consider it.

11 Oct 2021; MEMO: Syrian refugee families in Denmark have reportedly been fleeing to the Netherlands in an effort to escape the possibility of being deported back to Syria, as Copenhagen continues to deem Syria as safe enough under the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Tuesday she will step down as head of a three-party, minority center-right government after a left-leaning bloc won last month’s parliamentary election. The leader of Norway’s Labor Party, Jonas Gahr Stoere, is expected to take over later this week.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The leader of Norway’s Labor Party is to start talks Tuesday in an attempt to build a coalition after the center-left bloc beat the incumbent Conservatives and won Norway’s general elections.

With all votes now counted, the Labor Party and its two left-leaning allies — the Socialist Left and the euroskeptic Center Party — grabbed 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the current government would get 68. The last seat is going to a northern Norway health-focused protest party, Pasientfokus.

COPENHAGEN, Sept 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Denmark has become the only European country with no coronavirus-related restrictions in place, as vaccine rates have reached more than 70 percent of the population.

The return to normality has been gradual, but as of Friday, the digital pass proof of having been vaccinated is no longer required when entering nightclubs, making it the last COVID-19 safeguard to fall.

“It’s quite liberating that Denmark no longer has restrictions.”

COPENHAGEN, Aug 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — From now on, Denmark will no longer define COVID-19 as a disease that threatens society, according to Health Minister Magnus Heunicke, who declared on Friday that the pandemic was now under control.

“We have record-high vaccination rates. Therefore, on Sept 10, we can drop some of the special rules we had to introduce in the fight against Covid-19.”

31 July 2021; MEMO: Denmark could face legal action for its attempt to deport Syrian refugees from the country, a report has revealed.

In March, the Danish government declared that the Syrian capital Damascus and the territories under the control of President Bashar Al-Assad are "safe", enabling it to revoke the residency permits of hundreds of Syrian refugees in Denmark.