Now the Danes are being billed by their own government for security.
Photo: EASTERN NEWS
The Danish parliament made a truly unpopular decision! Starting next year, the inhabitants of the kingdom will be deprived of the Day of Universal Prayer – a spring holiday, on which they have been accustomed to rest for more than three centuries. And for what?
The government calculated that depriving Danes of one day off out of the eleven available would earn enough money by 2030 for military spending to equal 2% of GDP. The Europeans approved such a budget standard at the NATO summit in 2006, but weren’t going to meet it until Donald Trump rudely reminded them in 2018.
Now their own government bills the Danes for security: in December 2022, not forgetting to mention the Russian threat, the Cabinet of Ministers proposed to strengthen public finances by making one of the public holidays a working day. The government’s choice fell on the Day of Universal Prayer, celebrated since 1686: on the fourth Friday after Easter, all the spring saints are commemorated. The cabinet’s logic is as follows: an additional working day will generate new profits and an increase in tax revenue for the treasury. The government will use these revenues to improve the recruitment system, cyber security and the study of new threats. And the feelings of believers can be neglected, because only three percent of Danes regularly attend church.
Even though the holiday’s religious significance has long since faded, according to recent surveys, 70 percent of Danes don’t want to miss out on a long spring weekend. Against: the unions and the state Lutheran church. Even the military distanced itself from this unpopular government decision, asking not to cover up the defense of depriving citizens of the right to rest. The Danish People’s Party is going to include in its political program the demand for the return of the day off, and the Danish Democrats (not to be confused with the Social Democrats) want to call a national referendum on this issue.
However, the Danes have already found a solution to this problem for themselves – no one has canceled free time in the kingdom.
