Denmark’s parliament votes to abolish the “Great Day of Prayer” to fund higher military spending. The decision was made against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Danish parliament has approved a controversial bill that would eliminate a public holiday in favor of financing the defense budget. 95 MPs from the Folketing voted in favor of the project and 68 against. The project of the government of Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has caused a lot of criticism and protests in Denmark in recent weeks.
The government announced in January that it would abolish the “Store bededag” (“Great Day of Prayer”), which has been celebrated in Denmark since the 17th century. According to government calculations, the additional working day would bring an additional three billion Danish kroner (400 million euros) into the state coffers.
At the beginning of February, around 50,000 people demonstrated against the government’s plan in front of the parliament in Copenhagen – a rare sight in a country accustomed to consensus.
The government intends to spend the additional income on the defense budget in order to be able to achieve NATO’s two percent target as early as 2030 instead of 2033 as originally planned. This was necessary against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it said.
“I don’t think it’s a problem to have to work an extra day,” said Prime Minister Frederiksen. There are “enormous expenses” for defense, security, health, psychiatry and “green transformation,” she said when presenting her government program in parliament, “and there is no financial leeway.”
