LATEST UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 2000

Despite the fact that the Danish economy is sound and the unemployment rate has decreased, there is an upsurge of activity from extreme right-wing groups, and xenophobic notions have become more commonplace. In Denmark, as in other European countries, there is rising concern about the intake of refugees and the extent of immigration; xenophobic attitudes - although not specifically antisemitic - are increasingly apparent in the rhetoric of even the mainstream political parties. However, there are very few serious or violent xenophobic incidents in Denmark, and those more minor incidents that do occur are generally examples of discrimination.

The Jewish population in Denmark is well integrated in society, and for the most part enjoys equal access to social services and amenities. More visible minorities, however, have increasingly felt discriminated against, particularly as regards employment, leisure activities and police surveillance.  

Other minorities: among ethnic minorities holding full Danish citizenship are some 15,000 Germans in the south of Jutland (near the German border), and about 9,000 Greenlanders (many of whom are ethnic Inuits) and a number of Faroe Islanders (neither legal minorities as both Greenland and the Faroe Islands are former Danish colonies). 

According to the Danish Refugee Centre, as of 1 January 1999 there were 363,000 immigrants and their descendants living in Denmark (6.8 per cent of the population), including both those who hold Danish citizenship and those who do not (immigrants and refugees are eligible to apply for citizenship after six years in Denmark): just under 30 per cent from Scandinavian, other European or North American countries; just under 30 per cent from designated 'refugee countries' (presently defined as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Romania, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, former Yugoslav republics and stateless persons) and over 40 per cent from other countries. (The Danish interior ministry defines the above categories, and determines which category a country falls into, a determination that changes from year to year.) 

As of 1 January 1999 there were also 256,000 foreign nationals temporarily resident in Denmark (4.8 per cent of the population): 30 per cent from Scandinavia, Europe or North America; 31 per cent from the designated 'refugee countries'; and 39 per cent from other countries. The largest groups of foreign nationals are Turks (37,000), Britons (13,000), Germans (13,000), Iraqis (13,000), Somalis (13,000), Norwegians (12,000), Swedes (12,000) and Yugoslavs (12,000). 

Political data 
Political system: constitutional monarchy (since 1849) and parliamentary democracy with a unicameral legislature 

Head of state: Queen Margrethe II 

Government: a coalition between the Socialdemokratiet (S, Social Democratic Party) and the Radikale Venstre (RV, Social Liberal Party), under Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (S) 

Opposition parties: Venstre (V, Liberal Party), Det Konservative Folkeparti (K, Conservative People's Party), Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF, Socialist People's Party), Dansk Folkeparti (DF, Danish People's Party), Centrum-Demokraterne (CD, Centre Democrats), Kristeligt Folkeparti (KF, Christian People's Party), Frihed 2000 (FRI, Freedom 2000).

Next general election: 2002 

General election March 1998: The parties of the ruling coalition narrowly won by receiving 50.1 per cent of the vote (90 out of 179 seats) as follows (seats won in 1994 in brackets): 

Results for the opposition parties as follows (89 out of 179 seats): 

European elections 10 June 1999: 

Referendum on the euro 28 September 2000 (Denmark became a member of the EU in 1973): 53.1 per cent against the euro, 46.9 per cent in favour (turnout 87.5 per cent) 

Economic data (Ministry of Economic Affairs: Economic Survey, May 2000) 

GDP 1999: Dkr. 1,213 billion 
GDP per capita 1999: Dkr. 228,000 
GDP growth 1999: 1.6 per cent 
Inflation 1999: 2.5 per cent (2.1 per cent according to EUROSTAT) 
Unemployment 1999: 5.6 per cent (4.5 per cent according to EUROSTAT)

Danish Jews were granted full civil rights in 1814 (the first Jewish resident in Denmark, Joachim Jew, was registered in 1592 in the northern town of Helsingør). But the Danish state had gone bankrupt only a year earlier, in 1813, and the emancipation of Danish Jewry consequently caused many anti-Jewish riots. 

At the fin de siècle, modern political antisemitism became more widespread. Jewish financiers played an important economic role at the time, and were subject to harsh accusations, especially during and after the First World War. Most of them, however, lost their money and their influence in the post-war recession of 1921-4. Subsequently, antisemitism played only a much more peripheral role in public debate. 

Like most other western countries, Denmark permitted few German Jews to settle in the country from 1933 onwards, although some young German Jews were admitted to study agriculture (and subsequently make their way to Palestine). Some of them were still in the country when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany on 9 April 1940. Previous to this, the Danish government had opted for collaboration with the Germans in the hope that they would thereby protect the country and its citizens, the so-called 'policy of negotiation'. 

Denmark has become famous for the October 1943 rescue operation in which more than 90 per cent of the Jewish population in Denmark crossed the sea to reach neutral Sweden. Only some 500 Danish Jews were seized by the Germans and deported, mostly to Theresienstadt. Denmark has ever since been seen as a shining example of a country that protected its Jewish population during the war. Denmark was liberated on 5 May 1945, which remains a national day of commemoration. 

Recently Denmark's war-time record has been a bit tarnished. The research findings of historian Vilhjalmur Örn Vilhjalmsson, made public in 1999, demonstrate that, between 1940-4, at least twenty-one stateless Jewish refugees were sent back to Germany where they faced deportation to the camps. Furthermore their expulsion was not organized in response to German coercion but was instigated entirely by the Danish civil servants involved. This newly uncovered chapter of Danish history—neither heroic nor rosy—describes an antisemitic, narrow-minded and corrupt war-time bureaucracy. After the war the civil servants in question—most of whom are no longer alive—rose to prominent positions in the police force and the legal system. 

After the Second World War, there was considerable sympathy for Jews in Denmark, and antisemitism virtually disappeared. However, in the 1950s, copies of antisemitic pamphlets and literature were beginning to circulate. 

The so-called Blekingegade-group (named after the Copenhagen street where it was based) was formed in 1970 by supposed sympathizers of the Palestinian cause. Members of the group committed murder and bank robberies. The group considered Jews to be enemies, and drew up a hit-list of supporters of Israel. In 1989 the police exposed the group, shocking the Danish public, and all five of its members received heavy sentences.

In late 1999 it was reported that at least one war-time Danish industry, F. L. Schmidt (a cement factory), made use of Jewish slave labour in Kunda, Estonia. A government enquiry is now underway concerning the extent of co-operation between Danish industries and Germany during the war years.

War crimes
In May 1998 the Danish justice minister requested that the German authorities consider prosecuting Søren Kam, a former Danish SS-officer. Søren Kam is believed to have participated in the execution of a Danish journalist in1943 but, since he became a German national after the Second World War and Germany has never extradited Nazi war criminals, Denmark has been unable to try him for war crimes. In March 1999 Frank Jensen, the Danish justice minister, requested that the German authorities re-open the case, without success. Jensen then called for an international search for Kam to be mounted so that, if the latter left Germany, he could be arrested and handed over to the Danish authorities.

Denmark historically has been, and still is, a relatively homogenous society. Only some 500,000 foreigners, including those both permanently and temporarily domiciled, live in Denmark (see General background), accounting for about 10 per cent of the total population, of which approximately 30 per cent are of Scandinavian, European or North American origin. However, the ethnic composition of Danish society is becoming increasingly diverse, and national debates concerning the future of Denmark as a multi-ethnic society are accordingly becoming more heated. 

In early November 1999 a Copenhagen court ordered the expulsion of a twenty-three-year-old Danish-born male of Turkish origin previously sentenced to three years in prison for violent theft; the expulsion was ordered to be enforced upon his release. The ruling was possible, despite the fact that the man had been born in Denmark and always resided there, on the grounds that he had never applied for Danish citizenship. The case is the first of its kind in the country's history. In protest at the controversial ruling riots broke out on 7 November in one of central Copenhagen's main shopping districts, Nørrebrogade, which also houses a high concentration of immigrants. The rioters, a mixture of Danish and immigrant locals, shattered shop windows, set cars on fire and generally vandalized the area.

The DF launched a campaign in January 2000 with the slogan, 'When I become a Muslim I shall get a flat. How Muslim do you have to be to get a flat?', an allusion to an allegedly unfair system in which 'Muslims'—understood as non-Danes in general—enjoy priority status on the Danish housing market. The DF's campaign material was signed by the so-called 'Association for the Protection of "Old Danes in the Housing Market"', a direct reference to the 'How Danish do you have to be to get a job?' campaign launched in late 1999 by Foreningen Nydanskere (Association of New Danes, 'New Danes' being the least pejorative term for those of non-Danish origin). 

The latter campaign was aimed at discriminatory employment practices. According to the Dokumentions- og rådgivnings centeret om racediskrimination (DRC, Documentation and Advisory Centre on Racial Discrimination) in Copenhagen, it is very difficult for non-Danish persons to gain employment in the skilled sector, despite the fact that opinion polls have shown that a majority of employees are happy to work with members of ethnic minorities, suggesting that it is the employers who are refusing to hire New Danes. 

The DRC reported the DF's campaign advertisement to the police in Copenhagen as being a violation of Article 266b of the criminal code, which penalizes racially discriminatory speech. The case is still unresolved. 

Immigration and refugees 
The newly amended Danish legislation on immigration and integration (Udlændingeloven), which took effect in January 1999, specified that refugees would receive only 80 per cent of some of the benefits available to Danish citizens. Several human rights organizations claimed that the legislation was in breach of the UN Convention on Refugees that states that refugees must not be discriminated against and must therefore be eligible for the same benefits as the country's own citizens. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) agreed to give Denmark a trial period in order to see how the legislation functioned in practice before reaching a decision as to whether or not it was discriminatory. 

In recent years refugees in Denmark have primarily come from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, the Yugoslav republics, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka, including as well noteworthy numbers of stateless Palestinians. 

According to the UNHCR in 1999 just under 6,500 refugees applied for asylum in Denmark. The largest group of applicants came from Iraq (1,803), Slovakia (967), former Yugoslav republics (868), Afghanistan (533) and Somalia (483). The number from Slovakia, predominantly Roma, represented a sharp increase over the 61 applications received in 1998. Denmark has also received 500 quota refugees primarily from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan (quota refugees are usually selected from UNHCR camps) and just under 3,000 refugees from the war in Kosovo who were given temporary leave to remain in Denmark during the Kosovo war. 

In 1999, decisions were made in the cases of nearly 5,600 asylum applicants by the Udlaendningestyrelsen, the Danish immigration service. Of these, asylum was granted to approximately 3,300 persons, representing an approval rate of 60 per cent. The UNHCR reports that, from January to September 200, the Danish authorities received 7,645 applications for asylum (2.6 per cent of the total number lodged throughout Europe). The origins of the asylum-seekers were similar to those in 1999.

Mainstream parties

Karen Jespersen (S), the interior minister, has recently made comments that have shocked her fellow politicians, as well as members of the public. Among those comments were the following: that criminal asylum-seekers should be sent to a isolated desert island; that the development of immigrant communities should be monitored; and that Muslim culture should be considered to be equal to Danish culture. DF-member Mogens Camre welcomed Jespersen's remarks, and expressed a wish for closer co-operation between her party and his own.

Anti-immigration parties
The Dansk Folkeparti (DF, Danish People's Party), the largest anti-immigration party in Denmark and the fifth largest party in parliament, has since the March 1998 general election—when it won 7.4 per cent of the vote— held 13 out of the 179 seats in the Folketinget, the Danish parliament. Its prominent and outspoken leader is fifty-three-year-old Pia Kjærsgaard, whose voice is regularly heard in debates concerning refugees and immigration, the European Union as well as other issues. The DF was established on 6 October 1995 by the MPs Pia Kjærsgaard, Poul Nøddegaard, Ole Donner and Kristian Thulesen Dahl, after all four had left the radical- right, populist party Fremskridtspartiet (Z), of which Kjærsgaard had been the leader, following an acrimonious party congress. Their newly founded parliamentary party, the DF, had, within its first few days, acquired a membership of 600 and, in January 2000, the party's membership reached the 5,000 mark. In recent opinion polls the party's support has been as high as 15 per cent. 

The DF describes its political goal as 're-establishing Denmark's independence and freedom, and securing the existence of the Danish nation and the Danish monarchy'. It regards immigration as one of the greatest threats to the integrity of the nation, and claims that it is currently taking place on a 'massive scale'. The DF's fear is that Denmark will become a multi-ethnic society, which would necessarily curtail the freedoms enjoyed by Danes, to whom in fact Denmark 'belongs'. While the party does allow for a minimal number of refugees to enter the country, it insists that they should not integrate into Danish society and thereby become immigrants, and that they should be repatriated at the first available opportunity. The DF is also anti-European Union and advocates the abolition of the European Parliament; its campaign against the euro in the run-up to the referendum of September 2000—a fight to 'keep the krone and keep the values of Danish society' and to 'keep the control of Danish society in Danish hands'—received a great deal of media attention and increased the party's image of respectability. 

In the European elections of June 1999 Denmark was one of the few countries in which the far right gained ground. Mogens Camre (DF)—formerly a Social Democrat MP (1968-87) who was expelled from S in the spring of 1999—won a seat in the European Parliament with 114,449 votes (just below 6 per cent). Among Camre's campaign statements in the run-up to the euro referendum were the following: 'There is a new proposal before the European Parliament that would allow immigrants to bring anybody they wanted to into Europe, even friends who could be homosexual men' and 'If we allow them [immigrants] across our borders it will mean mass immigration of people from other cultures, forcing our citizens to accept barbaric ways and medieval religions that will tear our society apart'. 

In June 1999, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Danish constitution, the DF organized a so-called 'Party for the People', which was held on Dybbøl Bakke and attended by 850 people. Speeches were delivered by Pia Kjærsgaard, Søren Krarup, a Lutheran priest and member of the far-right Den Danske Forening (DDF) and MEP Mogens Camre. 

In early 2000, the DF launched a campaign that claimed that Danes are discriminated against on the housing market, which allegedly gives priority to 'Muslims' (see Racism and xenophobia). 

Fremskridtspartiet (Z, Progress Party) is an anti-tax, anti-welfare and anti-immigration party. It claims that its primary aim is to protect the freedom of the individual, the main obstacles to which are apparently taxation— freedom and taxation are believed to be inversely proportional, the fewer taxes, the more freedom—and immigration, which is described as a disruptive force. 

Z was established in August 1972 and swept into parliament in the December 1973 elections when it won 23 seats, a success that has never been repeated. It was for many years lead by Mogens Glistrup, who was expelled from the party in 1983 after being found guilty on charges of tax fraud (Glistrup had also been found guilty more than once for racist activities). In 1990 Glistrup founded Trivselspartiet (Welfare Party), which never gathered much momentum or exerted significant influence. 

After Glistrup's exclusion Pia Kjærsgaard (see above) and later (after Kjærsgaard's resignation in October 1995) Kirsten Jacobsen (see FRI below) assumed the leadership of the party. More recently, Z has become an increasingly minor player on the political scene due to internal divisions. The 11 seats won in the 1994 elections were reduced to 4 in March 1998 (after the founding of DF), when it won a mere 2.4 per cent of the vote. The internal tensions culminated in the re-admittance in the autumn of 1999 of Mogens Glistrup. In protest the party's four MPs resigned en masse in October 1999 (see FRI below), and Z lost all its seats in parliament. Glistrup's well-publicized, extreme anti-immigrant and racist views, for which he has appeared in court numerous times—including the statement that all Muslim immigrants should be detained in camps and Muslim women sold off to South America—had apparently become too intemperate for the four MPs. One of those MPs, Tom Behnke (see FRI below), himself had suggested that Somali refugees should be dropped by parachute over Somalia, a remark that led to a public outcry. 

Frihed 2000 (FRI, Freedom 2000) was founded on 12 October 1999 by the MPs Kirsten Jacobsen (see above), Kim Behnke, Tom Behnke (see above) and Thorkild Fransgaard. The party was established as a breakaway from Z in protest at that party's re-admittance of Mogens Glistrup (see above). FRI has explained that, since Glistrup's views were in conflict with Z's programme, FRI could not remain within the Z's framework. The four founders have stated that the party will not field candidates in the next elections, but that they will simply continue the political work they were elected to carry out as Z members. FRI is, like its forerunner Z, an anti- welfare, anti-tax and anti-immigration party. 

The Dansk Center Parti (Danish Centre Party) is an extremely marginal xenophobic political party that, having been denied access to all other media, has turned to the Internet to disseminate its views. It calls for a complete ban on immigrants and refugees entering the country and for foreigners already in Denmark to be thrown out. The party's postal address is in Bagsværd and its leader is Kirsten Hoigaard. 

Among the extra-parliamentary anti-immigration groups, Den Danske Forening (DDF, The Danish Society) is the largest and most 'respectable'. DDF members have in the past emphasized the Jewish origins of some of their members and the fact that two of its founding members helped Jews escape to Sweden during the Second World War, thereby attempting to deflect any accusations of antisemitism. DDF is a clearly racist and, in particular, Islamophobic organization with a membership of approximately 3,000. It was established in 1987 and is currently led by Professor Ole Hasselbalch and the Lutheran priest, Søren Krarup (see DF above). The group publishes the magazine Danskeren (The Dane) and has since 1997 maintained a website (in Danish and English) on the Internet; on its English website DDF claims that the characterization of the group in JPR's Antisemitism World Report 1995 is mere fabrication: 'The World Antisemitism Report is based upon a wish to identify any serious opposition to the swelling immigration from the Third World as anti-Semitism.' 

Dansk Forum (Danish Forum) was founded in 1996 and is associated with DDF. It is a racist and xenophobic organization, advocating that Denmark be for Danes only, and characterizing immigration as a threat to Danish culture. DDF has over the years been attacked by anti-facist groups, and Dansk Forum regards the surveillance of such groups as one of its objectives, and maintains a task-force for this purpose. It has an active youth branch in Copenhagen that publishes the magazine Alaetheia. Other publications include the bi-monthly newsletter Atterdag and a website. 

None of the anti-immigration parties espouses antisemitism. 

Neo-Nazi groups 
Neo-Nazi organizations are not banned in Denmark, nor has dissemination of Nazi propaganda been made illegal. As a consequence, German neo-Nazis cross the border from Germany—where Nazi propaganda is illegal—into Denmark in order to print and publish their materials. The Danish government's relaxed attitude is also reflected in the fact that annual neo-Nazi marches are allowed to take place (for the Rudolf Hess march, see below). These marches are tolerated so as not to contravene the Danish constitution, which provides for freedom of speech and assembly (Articles 77 and 79). 

The Danmarks Nationalsocialistiske Bevægelse (DNSB, Danish National Socialist Movement) is an openly neo- Nazi organization with a hard-core membership of 100-200. The DNSB was founded in 1970 and its leader is currently thirty-four-year-old Jonni Hansen, whose house in Greve, a city approximately 35 km south of Copenhagen, serves as the group's headquarters. Two more DNSB houses exist, one in Nørresundby on Jutland (the nearest bigger city is Ålborg) and the other in Kædeby on Fynen. Occasionally there are strong protests from the local population, and the inhabitants of Nørresundby have been especially persistent in demonstrating against the presence of neo-Nazis. These demonstrations have sometimes involved violent confrontations, mostly between DNSB members and anti-fascists. 

The DNSB's radio station, Radio Oasen (Radio Oasis), is broadcast from its Greve headquarters. 

Towards the end of 1998, Hansen declared his intention of establishing a Nazi school that would be based on Nazi values and would, amongst other things, teach Nazi racial theory and the history of the Second World War from a Nazi perspective. 

In December 1999 an anti-fascist demonstration was held outside the DNSB headquarters in Greve. When the fence surrounding the house was attacked Jonni Hansen got into his car and drove it straight at the demonstrators, injuring six people. At his trial Hansen claimed that he had acted in self-defence. 

There are reportedly continuing attempts to form a pan-Scandinavian umbrella organization of neo-Nazi groupings, purportedly to provide mutual support, both financial and organizational. One of the first projects of the formalized network was the organization of a common Scandinavian Rudolf Hess march in Denmark in August 1998. An annual Hess march is organized by neo-Nazis in several countries to commemorate the anniversary of Hess's suicide in Spandau prison on 17 August 1987 (see also below). The network originally included the principal grouping, Blood & Honour/Scandinavia, a group associated with the British Combat 18, and the Danish DNSB, the Swedish NSF and the Norwegian NNSB). However, there are recent signs that both Jonni Hansen, the DNSB leader, and the Swedish NSF have adopted a lower profile vis-à-vis the network in an attempt to create a more 'respectable' image for their groups. The prime mover in the enterprise apparently is the Norwegian-born Erik Blücher, the financially successful White Power music producer and owner of Ragnarock Records. Also active in promoting the network is the German-born neo-Nazi Marcel Schilf, whose mail order company NS88 produces large quantities of Nazi propaganda materials. 

Blood & Honour organized a concert in memory of the British Combat 18 founder Ian Stuart, held in the vicinity of Køge (close to Greve) in September 1999. Other similar concerts were held in the city of Torup (in Jutland) in November and on New Year's Eve of the same year. These events attracted an audience of about 100 from a variety of countries, including Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Germans, Britons, Slovaks, Slovenes, Poles, Swiss and Italians.

The town of Svendborg has experienced an upsurge of racist activity in the year 2000, following the settling of several Blood & Honour activists in the town. The outraged residents have organized regular demonstrations against the neo-Nazi presence, as have residents in the towns of Kollund and Kvær.

White Pride is a racist and neo-Nazi group that uses the slogans 'White Power' and 'White Pride'. They are primarily active in Århus and maintain a website on the Internet. 

At the end of June 1999 police raided the home of Frank Thor Varager, a former member of the DNSB who left the group apparently because it was not sufficiently extreme and become a member of Blood & Honour/Scandinavia. The raid followed an attack on the police by thirty neo-Nazis—from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic—who had gathered for a meeting at Varager's house. As a consequence of the raid weapons were seized and fifteen neo-Nazis were arrested. Varager's house is located on Langeland (an island in southern Denmark). 

The annual Rudolf Hess march (see above) was held in August 1999 on the island of Fynen, setting off from the city of Sundborg and continuing to Svendborg. The march brought approximately 100 neo-Nazis together. Its organizer, Erik Blücher, was the main speaker. Following the march, a concert was held at the Blood & Honour headquarters on Langeland. The march in 2000 was actually held on 29 July in the coastal city of Helsingør, and was, once again, followed by a concert held, just across the strait, near the Swedish town of Helsingborg. Some 60 Scandinavian and German neo-Nazis participated in the march. The Danish police remained passive throughout, but the Swedish police carried out identity checks on those who crossed the border.

The main synagogue in Copenhagen has been the target of minor attacks from time to time. In December 1998 six stones, each bearing a Star of David and a swastika, were thrown at the synagogue by an unknown person or persons. A year later, bottles, possibly crude Molotov cocktails, were also hurled at the synagogue, although the extent to which this act was motivated by antisemitism is unclear.

The Jewish cemetery in Randers (on Jutland) was vandalized at the beginning of the year 2000. A total of seventy tombs were overturned; the repairs will be carried out with the help of the local council.

The infamous Danish Holocaust-denier, German-born Thies Christophersen, author of Die Auschwitz Lüge (The Auschwitz Lie), died in 1997. Povl Heinrich Riis-Knudsen, a former member of the DNSB expelled for 'race- mixing' in 1992 when his short-lived engagement to a Christian Palestinian refugee was made public, is reportedly Christopersen's successor as Denmark's leading Holocaust-denier. Riis-Knudsen, who maintains a low profile, translates antisemitic literature and is also the director of the publishing house Nordland-Verlag in Ålborg. 

A large quantity of Danish Holocaust-denial material is apparently disseminated via the Internet. One of the principal sites is Danmarks forste patriotiske hjemmeside (Denmark's First Patriotic Homepage). Denier Christian Lintner, who has managed to get several articles published in some of Denmark's mainstream newspapers, is a contributor to this site. In his article, 'Aryan humanism', Lintner writes: 'This accusation, that "the Aryans" are somehow responsible for the so-called Holocaust of the Jews, is a very serious one indeed. If "the Aryans", or at least those in Germany, were really responsible for the abominable murder of six million Jews, who, then, must not detest the Aryan ideal of virtue? But what if the allegation is not true? In that case we must be dealing with what is surely one of the most obnoxious cases of calumny in history.' 

Lintner has previously received funding from the humanities branch of the Danish Research Agency to carry out research on Indian philology, despite the fact that philologists have condemned Lintner's work. 

The DNSB-run radio station Radio Oasen (Radio Oasis) continues to broadcast from the party's base in Greve. Radio Oasen broadcasts include, among other things, Holocaust denial and readings from Hitler's Mein Kampf. Nevertheless the station holds a broadcasting license that entitles it to funding from the Danish government. In 1999 the Danish ministry of culture gave the station a subsidy of 31,200 Dkr (c. US$4,800), which covered some 75 per cent of its activities. Apparently Danish legislation does not provide for exemptions on the grounds of discriminatory material. The DRC pointed out in 1998 that public funding of Radio Oasen is in violation of the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination, and several other organizations and individuals also voiced their objections, although this did not affect the subsidy once again being granted in 1999. The DNSB furthermore have stated that they are planning to expand and broadcast from its base in Nørresundby. In 2000 the station again received a subsidy from the state, as well as permission to broadcast for an additional 21 hours a week, bringing the total of hours on air each week to 61. When questioned about this for the local Copenhagen news broadcast on TV2 Lorry (21 August), Elisabet Gerner Nielsen (RV), the minister of culture, said: 'It is good that the [neo-Nazis] have their own radio station. Then one can quickly discover what they are all about and dissociate oneself from it.'

One of the most prominent Danish neo-Nazis, the German-born Marcel Schilf, produces large quantities of propaganda both for Blood & Honour/Scandinavia—particularly CDs, tapes and records of so-called White Power music—and for distribution by his own mail order company NS88. He is reportedly committing social security fraud by receiving Danish invalidity benefits as a resident of Birkerød, when he is in fact domiciled in Sweden and therefore ineligible for benefits.

The DNSB's publication Fædrelandet (The Fatherland) includes antisemitic and Holocaust-denial material as well as 'hit lists' of political opponents.

Other publications by far-right organizations include DDF's Danskeren (The Dane), edited by Sune Dalgaard, and the Scandinavian, English-language Blood & Honour magazine, Route 88, which includes a postal address in Hillerød, Denmark.

Internet

In addition to the sites mentioned below, the political parties DF, Z, FRI and Dansk Center Parti, as well as the neo-Nazi White Pride, all maintain websites. Among the fringe groupings, the DNSB, curiously, apparently does not.

Other noteworthy Danish Internet websites are as follows:

Blood & Honour/Scandinavia: an English-language website containing information and reports about Blood & Honour events, including meetings, marches and concerts

Blood & Honour/Denmark: a website with postal address in Hillerød, including a variety of links to other Blood & Honour factions as well as to other neo-Nazi sites

Danmarks forste patriotiske hjemmeside (The First Danish Patriotic Homepage): a website (in both Danish and English) run by Ole Kreiberg, including Holocaust-denial material—with contributions by Christian Lintner— as well as other antisemitic and racist propaganda and numerous links to Holocaust-denial sites and far-right parties in Denmark and abroad

Dansk Forum: a website run by Martin Kastler who is based in Holstebro, including a postal address in Hvidovre and links to racist sites and sites about Nordic mythology

Dansk Hedensk Front (Heathenfront Denmark): a website with a postal address in Sweden, and links to Heathenfront branches and neo-Nazi sites

Den Danske Forening : a website in both a Danish and English versions, with a postal address in Århus, and including a links page (headed by a disclaimer) containing links to a wide variety of sites: government institutions, mainstream political parties, neo-Nazi-groups, far-right organizations and Holocaust-denial sites

Dronten (the name of a mythological bird): an antisemitic and xenophobic online publication (seven issues now online), maintained by Knud Bjeld Eriksen, the author of the majority of articles, in which Jews are accused of inhibiting Dronten's freedom of speech and of encouraging Denmark to develop into a multi-ethnic society

Fælleslisten mod indvandring (The Voter's Shared Register against Immigration): an anti-immigration, antisemitic and xenophobic website maintained by Kaj Vilhelmsen, containing a list of 'dangerous Danes', i.e. people who publicly oppose racism, discrimination and anti-immigration legislation, that includes the leader of the Jewish community

The Glistrup Homepage: an Islamophobic and anti-immigration eGroup run by Bo Warming, a Mogens Glistrup supporter

Samisdat: an antisemitic website maintained by Lars Thirslund and his wife Marianne Herlufsdatter, based in Løkken, including biblical references and other 'warnings' of the havoc Jews cause to Danish society, as well as Holocaust-denial material and online copies of the printed newsletter Vestlig Samisdat (first edition 1995)

Legal instruments 
The Danish constitution contains no articles expressly prohibiting racial or ethnic discrimination, although Article 70 does contain a clause prohibiting any restriction of rights on the grounds of creed or descent.

Sections 1 and 2 of the Act Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Race make it an offence to discriminate on the basis of race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion or sexual preference when offering a service or providing access to a public place. In 1996 the Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation was enacted, and addresses discrimination in recruitment, transfer, promotion and dismissal, vocational guidance, training, pay and working conditions; only five cases have been brought to date based on this piece of legislation, largely because of the difficulty of proving the intention to commit a discriminatory act. The Danish Criminal Code contains a provision (Article 266b) prohibiting certain forms of racially discriminatory speech; again, few cases have been brought to court using this article, which has been rather narrowly interpreted based on a conventional respect for freedom of speech. Racist and xenophobic organizations are not prohibited in Denmark.

Denmark has recently amended its Nationality Act so as to eliminate the previously automatic right of non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 23 who have lived in Denmark for 10 years or more to acquire citizenship by means of a 'fast-track' naturalization process. Now, the records of such young people will be examined before they will be allowed to take advantage of that procedure.

As for international legal instruments Denmark has ratified most that deal with combatting racism and intolerance. However, it has not ratified the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages nor has it accepted any of the provisions of Article 19 of the European Social Charter dealing with the right of migrant workers and their families to protection and assistance.

Cases 
Two neo-Nazi have been charged for making death threats against four Danish anti-fascists in a 1998 animated video entitled Kriegsberichter vol. 4. In the video animated representations of the four anti-fascists - Erik Jensen from Demos, Anders Lange from AntiracistiskNetværk (Antiracist Network), Poul Møller from Komiteen Flygtninge Under Jorden (Committee for Undocumented Refugees) and the philosopher Peter Tudvad - are each executed by a Nazi character.

The DNSB leader Jonni Hansen was sentenced to one year in prison and given a two-year driving ban at the end of March 2000. Hansen had been charged with attempted murder for driving his car directly at anti-fascist demonstrators outside his house, injuring six people. During the trial, which lasted four weeks, Hansen claimed that he had acted in self-defence and admitted causing injury to three people. Some of the demonstrators were charged with damage to private property. Hansen subsequently appealed the verdict and was back in a Copenhagen court in September 2000, when the judge increased his sentence to one-and-a-half years.

The seventy-four-year-old founder of Z, Mogens Glistrup, received a 7-day suspended sentence in late August 2000 for making discriminatory remarks about Muslims. In February 1997 he became infamous for stating that Muslim women should be sold to the highest bidder or sent to South America. Glistrup himself maintains that he is not against Muslims but against the Danish politicians who have let the 'Mohammedan peril' into the country in the first place. After the verdict, Glistrup expressed his intention of taking the case to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The following month, in September 2000, Glistrup was again charged with violating Article 266b of the Criminal Code for his statement - made on Danish television in 1999 - that  Muslims were international criminals who were invading Denmark in order to kill off the local population. Due to his age, he received a 20-day suspended sentence.

Widespread and effective protests against the presence of neo-Nazi and other xenophobic organizations have become commonplace in Denmark since 1994. Anti-racist activity is well organized on both local and national levels. Members and supporters of groups are relatively easily mobilized for demonstrations against far-right individuals and events. Most recently (4 July 2000) the inhabitants of Nørresundby and Ålborg held their 500th demonstration against the presence of a neo-Nazi house in the area. The demonstrators gather outside the house with banners and torches in the evening and sing Danish songs.

The annual torch-lit Kristallnacht commemoration in November is equally a demonstration against contemporary xenophobia. A wide variety of organizations (trade unions, various ethnic communities, anti-fascist groups etc.) take part in event. In 1999 about 3,000 people attended the event held in Copenhagen's Town Hall Square.

The offices of the Dansk Center for Holocaust-og Folkedrabsstudier (Danish Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies) was opened in Copenhagen in September 2000. The Centre will carry out research into three main areas: Denmark and the Holocaust, the development of methods for combatting and preventing genocide, and the dissemination of information on genocide and related issues.

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Institute for Jewish Policy Research and American Jewish Committee

© JPR 2001