Today’s big topic: Several politicians say the electoral threshold should be raised
Of Borgens Parti's four elected members, only party leader Lars Boje Mathiesen remains.
What’s happening?
Members of Parliament and former Speaker Henrik Dam Kristensen (Socialdemokratiet, S) have proposed increasing the number of signatures a party must collect to be eligible to run for a seat. For people with 100,000 followers or more on social media, collecting the required 20,387 signatures can easily be done, Henrik Dam Kristensen says.
»If people are skilled on social media, especially with the new technology, it has proved that it can be done relatively easily. I think it’s relevant to discuss changing those rules, because we’ve seen a few examples — now with Borgernes Parti — where it falls apart relatively quickly«, he said.
Why it matters!
After three out of four members of Borgernes Parti have left the party, several prominent political voices are opening a sensitive discussion about whether it is too easy to get into the Danish Parliament. They argue that lawmakers should consider either raising the electoral threshold or increasing the number of voter declarations required to qualify to run.
In Denmark, the two percent electoral threshold is significantly lower than in our neighboring countries. The electoral threshold is four percent in Norway and Sweden, and five percent in Germany.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Number of apartments for sale rises in Copenhagen
With spring, the number of homes for sale usually rises. The same is true this year. For houses, vacation homes, and apartments alike, more properties are on the market at the start of May than a month earlier. That is shown by figures from the housing portal Boligsiden, which compiles listings from the country’s real estate agents. And according to Boligsiden, it is the supply of apartments for sale in Copenhagen, in particular, that has increased. Here, the supply has risen by nearly 13 percent in a month to 1,395, Ritzau writes.
– Absenteeism among schoolchildren has doubled in five years
Far too many children have extraordinarily high absenteeism without schools reacting, according to Børns Vilkår, based on a new analysis of student absences in the most recent school year: »We’ve taken note that the number of students with at least 50 days of school absence in a single school year has risen from about 6,000 to 12,000 students in five years«, said Rasmus Kjeldahl, director of Børns Vilkår, to Ritzau, adding: »It’s truly something that sets off alarm bells«.
– Food festival takes over Copenhagen this week
Want to eat in a more climate- and socially conscious way? Then you should head to Madland Festival 2026. Madland is fighting for better food systems, and from Wednesday, May 6, through Sunday, May 10, they’re inviting both food professionals and the rest of us everyday hungry citizens who want to get smarter about food through conversations, field walks, and communal meals.
Find the full festival program here.
Talk of town: The Wegovy pill exceeds every expectation. But Novo is holding back its cheers
Novo’s new Wegovy pill is selling so well it blows past anything anyone expected.
The weight-loss pill has sold between twice and three times as much compared with what analysts had been guessing. And it is far from the only good news. Novo Nordisk posted its highest revenue ever in the first three months of the year, at nearly 97 billion kroner. With numbers that golden, you might think Novo would release Wednesday’s results to the sound of champagne corks popping. That is far from the case.
After three months in which Novo has been the only company offering such an effective weight-loss pill on the market, consumers now have an alternative in Novo’s archrival Eli Lilly, notes Oskar Bernhardtsen, an investment strategist at Saxo Bank:
»Even though Novo Nordisk is delivering really good news across the board, they still expect a decent decline for the year as a whole. That seems pretty conservative of them, especially now that the Wegovy pill is beating the market’s expectations. But I think they’re holding back a bit on the optimism to make sure they don’t disappoint investors next time«, he says.
Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.