Will remove 300-year-old holiday – Dagsavisen
– The government must represent the Danish people, but it does not do so in this case, says the head of the Confederation of Trade Unions in Denmark, Lizette Risgaard.
Few know what “Great Prayer Day” really is. We have also had it in Norway, but not as a public holiday.
“Great prayer day” falls four weeks after Easter, and was introduced in the 17th century because inns and shops had to be closed so that people could go to church sober and be in the place.
Violent response to campaign
The leader of Danish LO, Lizette Risgaard, calls the government’s proposal shameful.
She believes the proposal is an attack on the Danish agreement model, which in Norway is known as the Norwegian model.
If the Danes’ response to the signature campaign is to be taken as a basis, Risgaard is not alone in thinking this. At the time of writing, over 400,000 Danes have signed, and the number is increasing at a record pace.
The initiative will add three billion kroner to the Danish treasury, which will mainly be used to strengthen the Danish defence.
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Losing support
Three out of four Danish citizens believe the government must drop the proposal to include “Great Prayer Day” as a public holiday.
One study conducted by Epinion for the main organization of the trade union movement (equivalent to LO in Norway) shows that fully 75 percent of those surveyed are against the proposal. Just 17 percent support it.
Of those who voted for Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s party, the Social Democrats, recently, fully 72 percent are against the proposal.
The Danish majority government shows no signs of withdrawing the proposal, even if it costs them dearly.
So great is the opposition from the Socialist People’s Party (SF) – SV’s Danish sister party – has increased support by more than five percent since the election this autumn – to 13.5 percent.
At the same time shows a fresh opinion poll a decline of 6.9 percent since the formation of the government. According to the newspaper BT’s political commentator, Joachim B. Olsen, the proposal to remove the big day of prayer as Friday has a large part of the blame.
Great demonstration
The protests don’t stop there. On February 5, a broad and cross-political demonstration at Christiansborg Slotsplass in Copenhagen.
There is the ambition to bring together as many organizations and voices as possible who want to preserve great days of prayer such as Friday.
– The trade union movement is clearly not alone in being against this proposal. Many others are critical of the desire to remove this day off, they would like to invite to this demonstration, emphasizes Risgaard.
Denmark currently has eleven public holidays, and will end up with ten if the day of prayer is removed. In Norway we have twelve public holidays.
The Norwegian government has no plans to remove public holidays.
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