Denmark: Resolution Passed to Prevent Danes From Becoming a Minority

Denmark’s long-running, some might say exhausting, debate on just what it means to be ‘a Dane’ has flared up again thanks to the wording of a declaration approved by parliament.

The Danish People’s Party (DF) last week introduced a statement expressing formal concern over the number of residents in Copenhagen suburb Brøndby Strand who have an “immigrant background”.

“Parliament notes with concern that today there are areas in Denmark where the number of immigrants from non-Western countries and their descendants is over 50 percent. It is parliament’s opinion that Danes should not be a minority in residential areas in Denmark,” the statement reads.

The official declaration was approved by a vote of 55-54, with government coalition parties Venstre, Liberal Alliance and the Conservatives joining DF.

All opposition parties voted against it, with many taking issue with the use of the word ‘Danes’ in the second sentence. Critics argued that by approving the statement, parliament essentially told Danish citizens who are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants that they aren’t really ‘Danes’. Under their reading of the statement, only someone whose parents are Danish, or at least Western, would be considered one of the Danes.

Even before the statement was approved, opposition parties slammed the wording of the text as divisive and discriminatory.

“This is one of the most extreme groupings into ’them and us’ that I’ve seen in a long time. And to pass it with votes from a so-called liberal government. That’s too much,” Pernille Skipper of the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) wrote on Facebook.

Morten Østergaard, the political leader of the Social Liberals (Radikale), also took issue with the wording.

“How will we ever achieve good integration if it is stated in advance that your ethnic background prohibits you from being considered Danish? This isn’t just trivial hair-splitting, this is alarming!” he wrote.

As the debate over the wording took off, government coalition party Venstre seemed to express regret, or at least internal disagreement.

“It’s being read as if we believe that you cannot be a Dane if you’re not born in Denmark or if your parents aren’t born in Denmark. We obviously don’t mean that. There are a lot of people who come here and embrace Denmark, and who are Danes, and that is wonderful,” party spokesman Jan Jørgensen said on Sunday morning, adding that the wording was "foolish".

However, later in the same day Jørgensen’s party colleague Marcus Knuth said that Venstre stood by the wording.

DF’s Martin Henriksen steadfastly defended the formulation.

“I think that most Danes are outraged that there are places in Denmark where the Danes are obviously a minority,” he said in a heated TV2 debate with Skipper.

“If you look at the official statistics, there are places where immigrants and the descendants of immigrants from non-Western countries are the majority. We in the Danish Peoples’ Party think that’s a problem and we need to talk about it,” Henriksen added.