Denmark's Justice Delays, Mental Health & Right to Repair: LWID S1E11

Welcome to Last Week in Denmark's official podcast.

In this episode, hear Journalist, Wizzi Magnussen, and Founder of Last Week in Denmark, Narcis George Matache, present this week's newsletter headlines and deep dive into some of the below topics:

• 2.3 billion DKK extra for the justice system
• 400 million DKK allocated for strengthening psychiatry next year
• Digital 'Stamp Clocks' for the employed
• Changes in the government - who are our three new ministers?
• Are you part of the top 1% of earners in Denmark?
• Sustainable purchasing to tackle climate change 

and more...

Produced by Wizmedia

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🎵 Music,Jack Leatherbarrow @ Wizmedia: https://wiz-media.co.uk/

Transcript

Wizzi:

Welcome to the Last Week in Denmark podcast. I'm your host, Wizzy Magnussen, and I'm here with founder of Last Week in Denmark, Narcis, to discuss this week's news and offer you extra insight into what's been happening and how it could affect you. Now, let's jump in. Welcome back to the microphone, Narcis. So what's new in the world of Last Week in Denmark? And perhaps, first of all, how are you today?

Narcis:

Well, you know, this has become quite of a exercise of being awake at seven in the morning on Sundays so that we can make this podcast happen. But I think with time, I'm just getting more and more used to the idea that Sunday mornings are not meant to be lying down in bed till mid-afternoon [laughs]. They are meant for us to create something cool, like this podcast. So, yeah, that's how I am. I am in, let's just say, mid-sleep. I am still awake, but not really.

Wizzi:

I'm a little bit- my brain's a little bit overactive right now, because since 5 o' clock this morning I've been writing scientific papers and stuff. So, I mean, yeah, for me, waking up first thing in the morning is just what happens to me naturally. It's the evenings that I can'tcope with. So, I tend to get as much work done in the first few hours of the morning, basically while everyone else is still sleeping. And then I have more leisure time later in the day. So that's how I work.

Narcis:

Nice. It's nice. I mean, I heard that successful people, right, they are able to wake up at 5am in the morning and that's how they become so successful and billionaires, some of them, actually. So I tried it once. I actually tried once for an experiment. I, for a couple- ah maybe a week or two, I was waking up at 5am in the morning to see if I can get more work done. But I got so destroyed after two weeks of doing that. You have no idea [laughs].

Wizzi:

Well, that probably indicates that you're not actually a morning lark. It's been proven that we are actually built individually to be morning larks or night owls. And there are benefits of both. Like it turns out, you know, when I was a teenager, I definitely thought I was a night owl. But as I've grown into vague representation of adulthood, I've become an earlier and earlier riser. And now I love my routine of getting up first thing in the morning. But I think people that are night owls actually get quite a lot of stick. Like people think you can't get up in the morning, you know, you're lazy. It's actually got nothing to do with that. It's completely down to your circadian rhythm and the natural way your body functions in its best points, you know. So I think with regard to that conversation, it's really about discovering when your brain works in its optimum functions. And it depends on person to person, what time of day that is.

Narcis:

Yeah, I mean, that's right. And for me it's making me angry that it's- I'm an evening person because that means that at dinner sometimes I have to skip that. I will not call it mandatory, but you know, glass of wine [laughs]. Because if I want to work in the evening, I cannot obviously have a glass of wine with dinner. And that makes me so angry that I am not a morning person. Exactly because of that reason that I would like my evenings to be just to relax and enjoy myself. But actually the evenings is when ideas come to my head and I have to sit down and work. And that's annoying. But anyway, enough about our [laughs]-

Wizzi:

Circadian rhythms. 

Narcis:

Yes, exactly. And new words that we learned today like circadian, whatever that is [laughs]. Let's talk about Last Week in Denmark. And Last Week in Denmark, well, we had a break last weekend we- well, this weekend we managed to relax a bit. We didn't go anywhere this weekend, but we will go again on the road on the next weekend. On Sunday, 3rd of December we are going to be in Billund in the morning. So I hope to see a lot of you, especially some of you who are listening who are working at Lego. I'm looking forward to meet you there. And afternoon we will be in Esbjerg. So we will be quite, quite far away in the capital of energy, right in Denmark. I heard cool developments from there. You have an interesting international house down there. So I'm just, I'm really looking forward to see what Esbjerg has to offer. And also we will be- the day before on Saturday, we will be in Skive. There is a very large event happening at 11 o' clock in Skive, actually in Durup. It's a- like a village next to Skive, where the Romanian community is gathering for large event. So if any of you wants to experience what it means to- what the Romanian culture is about, you're welcome to come on 2nd of December in Skive. Well, Skive kommune, let's just be more clear. And if you want informations about that, just write to us or, yeah, search around the newsletter later on. But yeah, that's the meetup events. This is kind of- we're getting closer to the end with that. Anyone who wanted to have some cool merchandise from us, like the cup, the metal cup that we have from Last Week in Denmark, the ceramic one, stickers, all sorts of really cool merchandise. All the people who have been with us in different events so far, they got a chance to get some of those, so good for them. But if you still want some as well this year, before Christmas, then I definitely recommend to you to join one of our last events around Denmark. But that's all with the events. I think the last part, the next thing I would like to mention from Last Week in Denmark is that we actually finished the survey, the one where we are asking people to complete and then they can be winners for several laptops. We will be announcing the lucky winners this week, so we'll be calling them. So did you participate, Luisa?

Wizzi:

I did, actually. 

Narcs:

Oh you did, okay.

Wizzi:

I think it's the one that we're- I think it's the one we're talking about. Yeah. I spent quite a long time on my survey.

Narcis:

Okay.

Wizzi:

I'm very grateful and I've actually got a bunch of stuff, including a new MacBook in my Apple basket right now. I'm kind of waiting for some, some funds to be released this month from my clients and then I'm going to press the buy button. But maybe I'll wait a few more days and see if there's any chance I won the survey [laughs].

Narcis:

It's a bit unfortunate we don't give Macs as a surprise. This is usually- as far as I saw, it was a Microsoft Surface Pro. Some- Yeah, but definitely was not, unfortunately, Macs, MacBooks. Those are a bit expensive, let's just say [laughs].

Wizzi:

Yes. And how are the winners being selected, of the survey?

Narcis:

Random. So literally, we will put all the numbers that we have, the phone numbers, into a random generator, and then simply press the button. [Laughs] So there's more than a thousand people who- No, actually not everyone wanted to participate for the prize. So there's around 800 people, I think, who are in the race for winning. So you have a chance in 800, actually. The algorithm could be choosing you. So good luck Louisa [laughs].

Wizzi:

We will see. So would you like to run us through some of the key highlights in the newsletter that's coming out today?

Narcis:

Yeah, of course. I mean, the first one I think that we could look at is the fact that the government decided, together with like anonymous support from all the parliament parties, to invest 2.3 billion in the justice system in the next three years. You probably have heard the stories of how it can take three to four years for all sorts of cases to be processed. Many companies will not even sue other companies because it just takes too long. So slowly, slowly there was a degradation of the justice system in Denmark. So now they decide to get more money. So more judges get hired, court lawyers, office clerks. So if you're looking for jobs in office, there'll be more jobs available in around courts around the country. Also there will be new courtrooms built and they will update finallythe IT system, which is very old. But I really, really hope it's not going to be Netcompany again, because they are good at giving cheap prices but also bad IT systems. So that's all I can hope is to not see that company get again win another tender call from the state. But what I think it's the most important part of this justice reform, is the fact that they have decided to simplify procedures so they can speed up case processing time. Because actually there was, there was a situation where people got sued, but because it took so long, they never actually got in trouble or whatever, because they never got to the chance to actually see the judge or be actually, you know, the case to be audited and see what's happening. So definitely now expect that things will happen faster. There is, of course, some people, like, kind of criticizing it because they want to make it more difficult. So for example, from now on, cases that are of value of under a hundred thousand kroners, they will be considered small. So actually, you don't need a lawyer present. You can defend yourself if you want, but you don't get a lawyer anymore. And also if you want to appeal. So let's say you lose a case in a civil, in a first court and you want to go to a higher court, it needs to have at least 50,000 kroners in the middle. Otherwise there is no point for it to go forward. And also be careful, if you get a fine and you get called in front of the judge, you need to go, because from now on it will be considered an admission of guilt if you miss it out. So I think that's quite an important, quite important change. And they actually can give you up to one year of prison without you actually being present in the court. Before it was just six months, but now they decided to double it because way too many times they will organize a courtroom and the person who is supposed to be there doesn't show up and then they have to reschedule. And then they have to reschedule. And that's not great.

Wizzi:

Costs a lot of money, doesn't it?

Narcis:

Exactly.

Wizzi:

Like, you know, so that makes sense.

Narcis

I mean, yeah, that's- I think it's good stuff. I mean, in the end we need a strong justice system that it's working. I mean, especially I saw that Danish industry and Dansk erhverv, they're very happy about it because they said way too many companies are afraid to take their suppliers or their competition to court or whatever because they simply takes too long. So it's- You may never actually get your case even processed. You can read more on the newsletter if you're curious. And I think we can go to the next thing in there. And it's mental health. I know how you like a lot this subject. And there is actually 400 million kroners being invested in 14 initiatives in 2024. And I think the most interesting one is that they plan to establish an emergency phone line for people with mental health issues from early 2025. That's pretty cool. So you'll not just have, you know, when you call one this- obviously you have 112, which is for whatever, but then you also have like this number in every region where you can call and talk to a guard doctor, someone who is on guard, at any time in the weekend or in the night. Now they want to make that opportunity also for people with mental health issues so that they can talk with someone at any time in the night or in the weekend. And I see that there is also alot of focus on safety of the workers in mental health. A lot of people are a bit afraid to work in those institutions because of various cases that have happened lately. So they decide to invest severely in security in the mental health institutions. And also they obviously focus on the young people that wait very long to get mental health treatment. They want to decrease the waiting time and make it somehow that they get processed faster. So I think that's kind of what's interesting. And I think the last part from here that's interesting is the Center for Digital Psychiatry, which is in south of Denmark. They're experimenting with digital therapy and digital diagnosis. So that's interesting. If it's going to work well, I guess probably they're going to extend this to other regions of the country.

Wizzi:

It's certainly an interesting idea. Center of Digital Psychiatry. I mean, I think there are risks. There are definitely high risks involved in giving therapies or giving psychiatric care and treatments and stuff through a screen. I don't know what you think.

Narcis:

I think the reason why they look in digital psychiatry is because 80% of the cases are mild or medium, let's just say severity. So a lot of them maybe have depression or like anxiety or a mild anxiety. So a lot of cases could be solved faster through a screen. Maybe a person just needs someone to talk with.

Wizzi:

I guess if it's in the spectrum of neurosis, not psychosis, then digital therapies might help. As soon as you start going into the realms of mental health and mental disorders that are on the psychotic range, you know, because neurosis is where sort of depression and everything is found. When it turns into psychosis, that's when the person loses touch with reality. And there's things like schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder and hallucinations and paranoia and things like that. So once you're on that spectrum, it's quite severe. And I think digital therapies would not be so suitable so-

Narcis:

Most people are not that severely affected. So they could get digital psychiatry, they could get a diagnosis over conversation and so on. So it's easy. Maybe, you know, you have a first time a digital talk and then you realize, oh, wow, okay, this person needs more help. And then you obviously give them a permit to come to a mental health institution. So, yeah, but it's definitely steps in the right direction. Mental health used to not even be mentioned a couple years ago in the yearly budget, and now it has become quite, quite important and quite focused. And this 400 million is just for next year. They're planning to have a 10 years plan and they're planning to invest even larger amounts in the following years. So we will definitely see improvements on this area. But of course in the same time the number of people with mental health issues increases unfortunately, year by year. But enough about mental health. Let's go a bit down and tell you about the stamp clock. Have you ever, do you remember in movies? Because I guess must be just in movies, when you were seeing someone coming to the factory. They will just have to stamp their, like a certificate or something, and then when they will go out, they'll have to stamp again that piece of paper.

Wizzi:

Yeah, yeah. 

Narcis:

Can you-

Wizzi: 

Clocking in and clocking out.

Narcis:

Exactly, clocking in, clocking out. Well, now Denmark is planning to soon, I think in July 2024, so next year. Well not soon, a couple of months. They want to make a digital stamp clock. So if you have a company or people work for a company, so either you're a one man company or you work for another company, you need to stamp every time you actually work so that they- so it's more accurate for them to see when, if you take enough rest and how many hours you actually work and so on. So for example, if you work for acompany and you decide to answer a mail after working hours, you need to clock in and when you before you start writing the mail and clock out when you finish that mail. And also when you make phone calls, let's say your boss calls you at seven in the evening. You should remember to go quickly to that app. You clock in before the phone call, you answer the phone call and then you clock out after the phone call has finished. It feels like an added step, to be honest. But I don't know. What do you think about it?

Wizzi:

Yeah, I don't like the idea of sort of employers spying on their employees. But if it's from the point of view of clocking all the actual work the employees do so that they get paid appropriate, then I like it.

Narcis:

What about this one man company? Because you do have one. So basically now you'll have to also clock in, clock out for yourself.

Wizzi:

Yeah, I mean do I have to do it as a self-employed? Surely it's my boss's decision, and I am my boss.

Narcis:

Exactly. So it's up to you to do it. So I guess you can just, you know. But I mean it depends because if you want to be more accurate in how much you actually work yourself, because it still is still a digital stamp, so it's still like online thing, like an app.

Wizzi:

That does sound quite useful, actually, because then if I'm having a bad day and I feel like I've had a useless week, I can look at my clock stamp, you know, and be like, oh, actually I've clocked up 50 hours and it's only Thursday, so it's fine. So it would be useful for me actually, because so at the moment I log when I'm doing an hourly paid project based on an hourly fee. I obviously clock all the time it takes for that client and then I charge them, charge them by how many hours it's taken in total, you know, and that's the way that works. But if I'm doing fixed quotes, because I also offer fixed project quotes for large projects, if the client's perhaps concerned about how much time it will take, I'll work out roughly how much time it will take and then I'll give them a fixed fee. And that doesn't matter how many hours it takes. But again for the, for accuracy, it would also be useful for me with fixed project quotes to work at how many hours it did actually take me, you know, because then I can be more- I can charge more appropriately the next time a project like that comes along. So yeah, I think it's useful.

Narcis:

Exactly. There, there is pluses and minuses. I think the minus will be that obviously it's an added step. People just don't like do extra work [laughs]. It's still a work, you know, it adds those five seconds or I don't know, 30 seconds that it takes to press the stamp. Still takes 30 seconds and you still have to open the damn app and press 30 seconds and then press again when you finish. So you need to remember it, literally. So it's just basically us getting used to the idea of doing it. Although I already see, I was reading online that like several big leaders, like of big companies, they will say that they will find a way around it [laughs]. So-

Wizzi:

The problem is the more modern sort of more agile and flexible companies tend to work on an output-based productivity base, not our base. So if you've- it's going to be very difficult for agile people that are built in an agile way, you know, agile and flexible working. I don't mean agile as in the IT agile, I mean agile as in the working style agile, which was kind of taken from that but has been changed. But anyway, yeah, the worry is that if you are working for somebody and they pay you per project or they pay you based on your KPIs and how much you actually produce in a month. They could end up having to pay you even if you've produced nothing because you've done your 40 hours or 35 hours or whatever. So I think there could be a little bit of friction there and it's almost, it could be seen as a bit of a backwards step, this timing everything business, when it's actually not the most effective way of measuring value. It's more in how much gets achieved in that time, you know. And people that get work done faster and produce more are actually going to be not as- it's not going to benefit them as much as kind of people that don't get as much done in the same amount of time, because they're going to be paid the same amount of money even though one has produced twice the amount as the other. Do you see what I'm saying? So those are the issues that I can foresee. It almost penalizes those that get their work done very efficiently because it takes them less time, if you're going to base the salary on the amount of hours that are done, if that is the case, you know, so.

Narcis:

I don't think you can do that to be honest, because most of the people have still fixed, they don't really have per hour. Only the people who work part time actually have per hour salaries. Most of the people have monthly salaries like with the fixed pay. So it doesn't matter if you work 100 hours or 20 hours, you still get the same money in the end. And it's just between you and your employee to decide if it's important that you are there 37 hours at least, or if it's important that you have finished this output. La la la. So that's why I think, in some cases, they will just do it. It will not be accurate. I think people will still cheat the system. And if they will just put it at 8 in the morning, regardless if they work or not, end it at 4:30. And then that's just how it is. Regardless if they work two hours later or towards my- It will be very hard to enforce. That's what I'm trying to say.

Wizzi:

I suppose that's when basing success on productivity will come in alongside- along with it. Because if you clock in this amount of hours this month and the same amount the next month, but you've produced half the amount of work on one of the months, it could be something that the employer looks into, you know, well, how effective were these hours? Why are you not so good this month? It could be quite good at monitoring output data. You know, and also the health of the employees.

Narcis:

Statistics. Yeah, that- it is interesting. And in the end, the whole purpose of the law was to see if people actually take rest during the day because, you know, it's encouraged that you take five minutes every hour as a rest and also that you have that half an hour in between large suites of work. So it was more for them to see if they're done, if they are actually doing that. But because if you stop working and you go out for a coffee break, you should stamp out. And then if you come back to the desk, you should stamp in again. I think there will be systems done that this is done automatically. So every time, basically you close your laptop, let's say, it automatically stamps out. And then when you open laptop, it stamps in. I'm pretty sure there'll be innovation on the field to make it as seamlessly as possible. So it should be interesting. I think the data will definitely show more about work environment quality and whatnot. But let's move on to the further down the newsletter and ask you, Luisa, how much do you ever dream to make per month?What's your top? How much would you be happy with per month?

Wizzi:

It would be really easy if I just answered with a figure, but I can't answer with a figure because instantly I'm thinking, what if I earn over the tax bracket I'm in at the moment, then I'm gonna lose even more of it. So it would have to be an awful lot more to make it worth paying the extra tax to earn more. Do you see what I mean?

Narcis:

Well, I just wanted to say if you were planning to make at least 179,500 kroners per month, then you could call yourself part of the 1 percenters.

Wizzi:

Okay, yeah, that's not me [laughs].

Narcis:

[Laughs] So you don't dream one day to be part of the 1%. It's not that much, right? 179,500 kroners per month. It's half of what people will make in six months in normal people in Denmark, basically.

Wizzi:

It's just over half what I need to make in a year to be eligible for permanent residency. At the same time, my husband is eligible because I'm self-employed. So I've discovered that you have to make 300,000 DK's in the year. Gross profits. That's gross profit in order to be eligible. So I've been laboring under the sweet illusion that once I've learned up to level five Danish and I can pass the cultural exam and I've been here four years, I'll be able to get permanent residency. It's actually a bit more complicated than that because I work for myself, there's a financial sort of tick box and I have to make that much profit in a year. So yeah, I mean, if I could do that for two months, just one year, the year I go for permanent residency, that would be great. And I'll call myself top 1% for a month, get my permanent residency, then go back to earning a normal amount of money.

Narcis:

[Laughs] But at least when you'll be the top 1%, you'll have to live in style, right? You'll have to, you know, get friends who have yachts and you'll have to properly go only to fine dining restaurants. I've been talking about rich people and everything. I mean, it's a bit problematic and I think there will be a big conflict coming up soon between poor and rich because the rich are, instead of reducing their CO2 emissions, if we're talking about climate change, they are actually increasing them in the past decades. Which makes sense because the more money they have, the more they spend. And all logically, everything you buy has a climate footprint. So if you look at it, the world richest 1%, the 77 million people, they produce 16% of the total global emissions in a year. And they produce just as many emissions as the poorest, 66%. So imagine 77 million people produce just as much CO2 emissions as 5 billion poor people.

Wizzi:

On this note, I actually did an interesting interview with another show I do on the radio on a station in the UK. A chap who I knew at college called Ben Avis has started Treea, which is sustainability paid rewards platform. They have- They're paired with a bunch of fashion brands including Gant, Fila, Allbirds and Naked. And basically they pay you back for making sustainable, environmentally-friendly purchasing choices. It's really cool. So he came up with this idea to pay people back to make the conscious, the sustainable decision, you know, when it comes to purchasing. So what they do is they publish the carbon emissions and stuff like that. All this data is available in big companies and what they do is they gather all that data and they give them a kind of score and say, yes, these guys are really green and they give you more money back the more green the company is. So it's an incentive to get people to buy more sustainably and help climate change from that point of view. Because the fashion industry is responsible for, I don't know what the figures are, but a huge amount of CO2 emissions. 

Narcis:

That's clearly- And it'll be cool actually to have this info in everything. So I think what would be really nice is to create some sort of calculator. So when I go to the supermarket or anywhere and they give me my receipt, it should be written on my receipt how much CO2 emissions I have created then. And maybe we can even have like a personal calculator. So if I pass a certain number of CO2 emissions, I should be taxed more. Pay a special climate tax. So you want to live like a king, you have to pay to live like a king. It's pretty much simple, because I feel like we are sharing the same space with the rich people, but they are not as concerned as we are and I think they need to be made more concerned. And if they have to pay more to enjoy the luxuries, well, that's just how it is. I mean, for them it doesn't matter anymore. I think it's no difference if you pay $800,000 or $1,000,000 for that damn bag. I don't think for them will make a difference, the 200,000 extra, which could go for a climate tax. So that's why my idea was that if you want to enjoy a luxury lifestyle or if you wanna- if you spend too much, literally, there should be like a limit. If you crossed over a hundred thousand kroners per per month in spending, then everything else further on will have a climate tax added on top.

Wizzi:

That's a really good app idea. Yeah, I like that. Let us know if you want to build this app, and we will not finance it because we have no money, but we'll jump on board and steal your idea and pull it off as a Last Week in Denmark app. Yeah.

Narcis:

I mean, I'm pretty sure people have thought of this idea. It's in no way a new idea, but I'm pretty sure it's difficult right now to create. But with the AI revolution and everything, I think new opportunities come in that direction. And talking about AI and well, yeah, technology, the European Parliament has adopted a new right. It's called the right to repair, which is pretty cool because most people actually don't really want to throw away their old technology. They would like to repair it, but it's usually not worth it or it's cheaper to actually buy something new than to actually repair like it used to be. So now the- well now it's passed in the parliament, in the European Parliament, but it's not yet a right. It has to be also agreed in the council with leaders of each EU member state and agreed in the international parliaments. And after that is passed then we can say we have a EU right to repair. And that will be quite cool because, for example, when you will be buying something from online platform, they will have to tell you where can you find local repairs and you actually should be offered incentives to repair your products instead of replacing them with new ones. You should get free access to how to repair. They have to do how to do it yourself repair and maintenance information for your devices. They will have to- Consumers will have the right to request repairs. So if you sell washing machines, vacuum cleaners, smartphones, whatnot, the cost, consumers will still have the right to request repairs after the guarantee has expired.

Wizzi:

Hmm. I like this. This is really cool. I have so many devices, I never throw tech away. So since I was like, I don't know, 15, I've had Apple products, I still have most of those Apple products which don't work and I have to replace them because with my last machine, that was my workhorse which I've been using for, I don't know, eight years every day recording an awful lot of audio on and editing and stuff. That break and to get it repaired was more than half of the money it was costing to replace it. So it just seemed ridiculous and they couldn't even guarantee it was possible. So I was like, right, okay, so I have to replace this machine. But it's still a very nice looking laptop which I'm sure someone could repair or refurb. And if there was an incentive for me to even give it to someone to refurb it. The trouble with Apple and places like that is, they won't take machines that are older than a certain few years ago old, you know, so none of my tech was eligible to trade in for my new Mac that I'm buying soon. None of it is eligible. Even though I've got, like, six devices I could trade in, they're all more than six or seven years old, so.

Narcis:

Yeah, no, that sucks. And I really hope that the national governments will not try to water down this legislation and leave it the way it is. Because if it happens then it will be a new business opportunity for a lot of people. A lot of people are good at fixing technology, refurbishing it. And they will just open up the market for repair shops. Remember how in the past they used to have shoe repair shop, clothes repair shop. Well, electronics repair shop. Those all died out, right? They all completely got wiped out in the past decades. They could come back. This is a new opportunity, a new small business space for some people to create their own job. And I'm looking really, really forward to this. If it goes well, we should have it by next summer. We should have it in place. So people who are very good with their hands and they like repairing stuff, there's a business opportunity on the way for you.

Wizzi:

So finally, Narcis, would you like to just give us a little summary of political news this week before we sign off?

Narcis:

Absolutely. I mean, what's interesting is the government has changed ministers because, you know, Venstre lost their leader who decided to retire from politics. And they got a new leader recently, Troels Lund Poulsen. And he decided to show both his partners in the government and his own party that he is tough. So he decided to change some people from the ministerial team, even though they barely got appointed less than a year ago. He already switched out to people who are not necessarily from his faction within the party to put two people, one person, two people from his faction plus one outsider. There is this Stephanie Lose. She got appointed as the Minister of Economy. She was the president of the South Denmark region and the vice leader of Venstre, the Liberal Party in Denmark. She became now one of the most powerful people in Denmark. Then you have Morten Dahlin. He is now the new minister of rural areas, churches and Nordic cooperation. The minister itself has been rebranded as cities in rural areas because they want to show that Venstre is not just a rural agricultural party anymore. They want to get voters in the cities as well. So that's why they decided to rebrand the name of the ministry. He is basically a party soldier. He has been in the party since he was 15, 16. He has grew up through the ranks and that's how he became minister in his 30s now. And then, the most interesting appointment is the Minister of Digitalization and Equality. If you ever watched Lovenshule or this Lion's Den or Shark Tank, as some people call it.

Wizzi:

Do you mean Dragon's Den?

Narcis:

Yeah, well, Dragon's Den. There's several names for it around the world. There is a Danish version of it, obviously. It's really cool. You should definitely watch it. It's on DR. There is this one investor called Mia Wagner and she became now the new Minister of Digitalization and Equality. The reason why she got appointed is because Venstre right now is on the way down. Like they have lost so, so many voters. So they really need some popular people because it has been shown that their ministers are very much unknown. Like, the two ministers who got sacked, they- Less than 40% of the people in Denmark knew who they were. And that's, that's very little when you are the minister of the country. So that was problematic for Venstre and that's why they decided to take a very popular person. I mean she's on TV every week to make sure that- to bring some new voters. It's not first time they are doing this. They did that in the past with another investor from the same show [laughs], Tommy Ahlers, in the same way to try to bring some more voters to the party. And another thing that would be interesting to mention is that this is the- not the last reshuffle of the government. There will be most likely another reshuffle of the government in the summer, because in 9th of June we're gonna have EU elections and we will have a new EU commissioner and minister for your EU. And then that means that some of the ministers are running for European Parliament. So they will be, maybe, elected. And that's why there'll be a reshuffle of the people that are in the minister positions. And most likely the government itself will try to strengthen its position, because right now they depend by one person. So if that person is missing, they are in trouble because it seems that Moderaterne, the Social Liberal Party, they have a bit of problems with their people they brought on, most recently one of their members of the parliament had to leave the party because he's dating a 15 year old girl. Which is a bit strange, just to say the least.

Wizzi:

You could say that. Yeah, you could say a bit strange. I mean, in England that's entirely illegal. Is it not illegal here?

Narcis:

No, no, it's not illegal here, but it's- Well it's against the party code of conduct because yeah, it's weird. It's not illegal, definitely not illegal, but it's just weird. That's why he's not going to prison, for example. He's just going to continue as an independent in the parliament. He's 20 year old for him, and which is I'm finding amazing that the 20 year old is elected in the Danish parliament.

Wizzi:

28, isn't he?

Narcis:

Yeah, 28. He's younger than us [laughs].

Wizzi:

Yeah. Don't tell the listeners that [laughs].

Narcis:

[Laughs] You understand what- and it's quite funny that the government got saved now by another independent which also left Moderaterne also because of his, let's just say, messages that he wrote to a 19 year old, this time from the youth section of the party. But those were unwanted messages, unlike this time. So that's why he also got kicked out of the party. But now the same guy, he signed an agreement with the government to keep the government, you know, in majority. Which is- It's quite funny how they go from one person to depend on another. But anyway, in case things don't go right. Radikale Venstre, the OG of the Social Liberals in Denmark, they are ready to join the government coalition, obviously in exchange for some minister positions. They got hungry and they're ready to join the government because they made a mistake. They were invited a year, less than a year ago to join the government. They said no in the middle of the negotiations, and obviously they lost out. People, their own voters got a bit angry that they chose to be outside of power and now they're ready to join. So they could be strengthening the government majority. Because as you can see, when you get a new party like Moderaterne, which has less than two years, no tradition whatsoever, a lot of people that, let's just say don't really belong to the political class, got elected in the Danish parliament. And it was Moderaterne who had a lot of cases with their own candidates and their own elected ones with whatever. Some of them got found that they were doing fraud with public money. Some of them were found from their previous activities, not necessarily when they got elected, but from the previous activities. Once you become a public person, remember if any of you dreams to do so, the media will start digging, digging, digging. So if you have done anything stupid in last 20 years and you're planning to become a public person, you have to own it because they will find it [laughs].

Wizzi:

It's definitely time to get a PR crisis team in the office to discuss all of your previous mis-endeavors and work out how to basically spin them, apologize for them and make them not able to hurt you anymore.

Narcis:

Pretty much, yeah. That was it for politics this week. And I think that was the most important thing.

Wizzi:

That is also it for this podcast today. It has been a longer episode than usual. I hope you found this episode informative, interesting and of value. Narcis, lovely to see you. Have you enjoyed our session this morning?

Narcis:

Yes, it was nice. I really feel refreshed now and ready to start my Sunday [laughs].

Wizzi:

[Laughs] I'm ready to stop work in the next couple of hours. I'm going to produce this, get it up and then I get to have the rest of the day off. 

Narcis:

Goodness.

Wizzi:

So that's nice. We'll be back next week on your favorite podcast platform. Just search Last Week in Denmark. Thank you very much for listening and goodbye for now.