Last Week in Denmark

Tax Debates, Skills Training & Denmark’s New Politics: LWID S1E2

• Narcis George Matache • Season 1 • Episode 2

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

Topics covered include: 

  • Legality of the Danish borders
  • 300 million DKK for vocational schools
  • Wages and Taxes
  • Support for the ban on burning religious books in public space
  • Danish population, fifth richest in the world
  • Eurovision for the Artic regions
  • Social media use in Denmark 
  • Legalising cannabis in Germany
  • LGBT+ rights, rainbow families, blood donations & the first drag school in Denmark

and more...

Produced by Wizmedia.

We are proud to open this episode with our new jingle and thank all those who donated to its creation. Our sound was composed by Jack Leatherbarrow from Wizmedia. 

Transcript Editor: Stephanie, https://www.linkedin.com/in/dstephfuccio/

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

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. Now, before we dive into the news of the week, we have, we have a huge thank you to make, don't we?

Narcis:

Yes, indeed. I mean, I was so overjoyed to see how many people have decided to donate to us. It was our first time ever to ask people to give us a donation for a project and I was very happy to see just how many people have reacted to our first episode and have decided that it's worth giving us a donation and supporting us through that in a way. Before we go further, I was just wondering, I would like us to explain to the donors and to everyone else who's listening right now, how we come up with a sound that they just heard a couple seconds.

Wizzi:

Ago, the Last Week in Denmark official jingle? Well, it was created by my team, so it was completely created by my in house composer, Atwoods Media, Jack  Leatherbarrow. And we approached it as we do all our creative works, really. We did some research. So I guess the first stage was to really get a feel for what the population of Denmark are currently listening to. And Jack discovered that the most popular genre right now in Denmark is edm, electronic dance music, which I thought was quite interesting. And following the brief, to create a piece of music that would sort of resonate with the musical taste of the times in Denmark, but also have a newsy feel and with distinctive international characteristics. Jack got to work laying down a simple yet effective drum loop in a sort of EDM style as a bass. The next stage was to add some ambient chords to thicken up the sound. And before the mastering was done, the final task was to add the international characteristics, which Jack says he did by sourcing the sounds of a hammer, dulcimer and traditional folk violas. And then what he did was he had to go in and alter the key and the tempo to fit with what he'd already created on the track. So very clever, very multi-layered original piece of music that he's done. I was very happy with it having given him. He'sdone a few jingles for Wizz Media, now he's done three. And I was really happy with this one. I thought it was really good. It took a lot of a lot of thinking, research, and then he just dived it. I think he actually did it in one stint. He just couldn't stop. Once he started creating it, he just carried on for sort of 24 hours until he'd finished it. And then we obviously went back and made a few edits and, you know, and I really hope that people are pleased with the result. And I want to thank everybody who donated to the creation of this work and a huge thank you to Jack Leatherborough, who deserves all the credit for this piece of work. Yeah, we hope you enjoy hearing the sound and the result of this work every week. What do you think, Narcis? Do you like it?

Narcis:

I think it was quite interesting. I really like that. International, let's just say, adds to the. To the jingle. It gives it a more unique feeling. And I hope that with time, this sound will become like our brand sound. Last Week in Denmark. Everyone will know when you hear that sound. It's Last Week in Denmark podcast time. It's Sunday. It's time for news. It's time to be informed because, you know, information is power, after all.

Wizzi:

Absolutely. Well, good. I hope that. I hope that happens and I do hope everyone's pleased with the project. So before we move on, Narcis, we have another Last Week in Denmark announcement, don't we, before we dive in and actually comment on the news of the week, which is what we're here for.

Narcis:

The. That. That's correct. We are launching our merchandise shop. Actually, it's. It's our first time when we go into this direction. Many a lot of people have asked us for. For this opportunity over the past three years, and we finally managed to get here. It's all thanks to Julie Smith Belton, the South African artist from Roskildes. She helped us to create this first ever merchandise line. It's called New Denmark. It's basically trying to show that Denmark now looks much more different than it looked, you know, 10, 20 years ago. That You can see different people who are sharing the same fate. We all live now in Denmark. Denmark is our home, but we all look kind of different. Denmark doesn't look the same as used to look in the past. So that's what kind of what we try to show through, throughthis merchandise. We started with six collections like Searching for Home, Moving Forward, and then we also have some named ones, and they are inspired, of course, from different cultural traditions, a combination of Denmark and other cultures. And we will continue actually adding to the collection by inviting different artists to do new. Let's Just say characters and new collections to be added to this new Denmark line. We know that a lot of people think that merchandise is just, you know, in a way like trash. So we decided that we wanted to be sure that it's high quality. We, the, the merchandise is only like organic cotton or recycled textiles and we do it in Europe, we do it in France. It's, it's done with you know, water based inks and they're actually vegan. So it's, it's as green as possible and as high quality as possible. And we also kept the price really low. For us, it's more important that a lot of people actually wear and spread the message that we exist. So we only actually make Europe on each order regardless if it's €30, like I don't know how to say hoodie or €10 cup. We, we do the same, the same markup, if you can call it like that. But yeah, that's, that was the lowest we could go with the prices without compromising quality. Of course there is a lot of print on demand platforms out there who source from China and some other places. But we couldn't trust the quality and we wanted to keep it here in Europe. I'm looking forward to see about your reactions to the merchandise and I hope you, you'll enjoy and be ready to order some.

Wizzi:

I really resonate with that because I had the same decision to make with something else. I run an initiative called Minds Anonymous and I also sell merchandise. I sell hoodies and T shirts on mines Anonymous and I did the same thing as you. I made it as green as possible. A local. I was in England at the time, so it was a British made, British made company and it's made to order and it's organic cotton and all of that. And again, I looked into other ways of producing this merchandise and I could have made quite a lot of money on each item if I'd gone down the boxes of stock and selling them one at a time, whatever route, and not gone ethical. But I made the same decision as you and I think it's really important that we as you know, when we're running businesses, when we're running initiatives, that we do consider the environment, that we do consider whether they're ethically made and we do consider the quality because ultimately yes, we're going to make less money from the merchandise but it's not really about that is it's also about spreading the word. So huge respect for the way you've gone there. What do you think is going to Be the most popular product.

Narcis:

I think the metal cups I really feel on that. And maybe really the hoodies. I was actually asking the team what would they like to have from the merchandise store because, you know, like to show appreciation. I ask if they want something from there. And almost everyone is asking for hoodies. It seems they're quite popular. And obviously the moving forward, the bike is very popular, but also different characters. People look at the characters and they see different reasons of why they would like to have that. So it's a personal choice, let's just say. But the hood is most likely will be very popular.

Wizzi:

It was the same with Mines Anonymous. My sponsors and partners and staff all wanted the. The hoodie they didn't want because I did sell other merchandise on the platform at one point. I don't anymore, but I thought about giving mugs away. But everyone likes ahoodie, don't they? They're just cozy, they're comfy, they're comforting. Yeah, I'll be checking out the hoodies for sure.

Narcis:

And it's Denmark, you know.

Wizzi:

Yeah, we need hoodies in Denmark.

Narcis:

There's no T shirts here.

Wizzi:

Now, moving on. Narciss, would you like to talk us through some of the newsletter headlines for this week and introduce what we're going to be covering on today's episode?

Narcis:

Well, it's been quite a busy week. I mean, even the newsletter is longer than usual. You can clearly see this back to school vibe. You know, even though we are not technically, well, we are not going to school anymore, we feel that the society is being influenced by it.So a lot of things are happening in Denmark. If we take a quick look at this, this week's edition of Last Week in Denmark, we can see titles like, of course, now the EU is questioning the legality of the Danish borders. There is something about a lot of money being injected into vocational schools. There is the talk about wages and taxes because, yeah, more people are. The government would like more people to work. Of course. There's a very interesting and funny debate about who doesn't want warmer summers inDenmark. Some politicians are very surprised. Why do we want lower temperatures? We like higher temperatures for Denmark, which is quite funny. There is obviously. It seems that the population actually supports a ban on burning religious books in public spaces.Funny enough, we are the fifth richest in the world. We are more rich on a personal wealth than Norway is. So. Ha.

Wizzi:

That's quite newsworthy. That is.

Narcis:

I know, because, oh, Norway always has. It's. It's like they have higher salaries than us and they Always keep stealing our doctors and our nurses, and I'm just tired of that. So just for once, we are better than them. We have more personal wealth than the Norwegians have. So yay. And we are number two in Europe after Switzerland. But I mean, come on, it's quite hard to beat the Swiss banks. Yes. Anyway, further on, the housing market is alive and kicking. You should definitely read. Why? Because you. If some of you are searching for a house, it could be a good moment to really look into it. There's Eurovision for Arctic region. So if you don't have enough Eurovision in your life in May, there is a Eurovision in August for the Arctic. It's amazing, I swear. You should definitely go and see.There's. You can actually see for free online. And it's worth it. It's absolutely worth. Such a cultural experience. And then you have. Of course, it seems that we are the people in Europe that use the most social media. There's only 9% in then in you, in Denmark.People who don't. Who are not on a social media platform.

Wizzi:

Wow.

Narcis:

Only 9%, you understand, like 91% of the people are there, from which 85% are on Facebook. So there's absolutely no way to dethrone Facebook in Denmark. And of course, we have to look a little bit of our. At our neighbors because I think we're gonna talk about this a lot because before the end of the year, there's gonna be legal cannabis in Germany, even more than whatever we have experienced in Netherlands. Like, we're talking next level stuff. You'll be able to cultivate it, to buy, to sell, and nobody will go after you. And That's just amazing. Of course, we can also look a little bit on the LGBT rights stage. It's. It's summer, it's pride. There was a lot of discussions about this. So media is looking at it closer. We're talking about rainbow families and that, you know, who have more than two parents, which it's not really possible legally, you can only have two parents, but rainbow families can be three, four parents. So there's a bit of issue there. There's discussion about blood donation for gay people because, you know, they. They cannot. There's about the first drag school in the history of Denmark, actually. The guy who made the drag school, he started here in Albor. He's from Oldborg, he's from my city and we used to be in the same youth politics together. So I actually quite know him quite well. It's quite interesting to see where his path has. Yeah. Where he has gone further.

Wizzi:

Maybe we should get him on the show.

Narcis:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. We should definitely have an episode with him and then we're gonna have. There was some talk about the legal gender reassignment for minors because it seems for three years they were supposed to allow it, but you know, somehow the it got lost in the ministry. So now they found those, they found the papers and now they finally put it in in place. But yeah, for three years now, if you were transgender and you were under 18, you could have actually had legally also your CPR to reflect your new gender.But yeah, it got lost in the way.

Wizzi:

It literally got lost. They lost.

Narcis:

It literally got lost.

Wizzi:

Isn't everything digital now? Just search for it. Search for the title on your computer. That's how I find my documents. If I don't file them properly, I.

Narcis:

Don'T know what happened. It's maybe we had too many ministers in the Equality Ministry, but who knows?

Wizzi:

Well, now that's all great. Thank you for that overview. So today we don't have time to cover all these headlines in depth, but do remember it's all in the newsletter, so do subscribe if you haven't already. Enjoy the full stories. Direct your inbox every Sunday. You can also just click the link in this show description on whatever podcast platform you're listening to us on to subscribe today and keep up to date with what's happening in Denmark. And before we move into a deeper dive segment of the show and take an intricate look of some of those headlines we've just heard this week, Narshas, would you like to take us through our political overview?

Narcis:

Indeed, because, you know, there's less than 10 months until we have the EU Parliament elections and all of us who are European Union citizens, I'm sorry for that. I know you are.

Wizzi:

Thanks for the reminder.

Narcis:

We have the right to vote either for Danish candidates or for our candidates from our own, you know, native EU countries. I feel like a lot of us will actually choose to vote for Danish candidate. We live in Denmark now. The Danish candidates are closer to us, so it's easier for us to reach them and discuss EU policy than to go all the way back home and decide there. So I feel like people should be ready to use their right to vote. And to be ready to use the right to vote, obviously they need to be well informed. So actually, last week in Denmark is going to cover quite a lot. In the next, obviously, months, we will try to give as much information as possible so that when June comes, you'll be Ready to exercise your vote. You'll know how and hopefully you'll know for who as well. So that. That'swhy keep an eye on that. We will always have something in the newsletter that might help you decide in one direction or another. Also, reminder, we are not politically like, we don't have a direction, so we will not represent line. Exactly. We're not going to paint the right wing or the left wing in a bad way unless they are bad towards us. So if obviously, if the right wing wants to kick us all out or and deport us or whatever, obviously we're going to say that. We're not going to hide that fact, but we're going to keep it to the facts only.We are curating service. We don't. We rarely produce our own pieces of journalism, so we don't really need to have a political direction. You can say that's the most important part of the political overview. Of course, it's also interesting because politics in Denmark Are changing. It's no more about red and blue. You know how it has been for the past decades. It's always been, are you a red side, left winger? Are you a blue side, a right winger? No longer. That actually was quite confirmed now because the government is a bit shaky. One of the members from the Moderates has decided to leave the party. And the majority was already very, very narrow. So now it's even more narrow. So all the blue parties were like, hey, Jakob, which is the leader of Fenstra, the Liberals, can you please maybe think about becoming prime minister and making a purely blue government? And he clearly said, no, thank you. From now on, I don't care about blue politics. I care about policy. And I'll do politics with whoever wants to help me implement that policy. So it doesn't care anymore if the Socialists are willing to support or negotiate with him. To get closer to what the politics of the Liberals are, he will work with the socialists. So this is a huge shift in how politics are in Denmark. Policy over ideology, literally.

Wizzi:

That really is a. That is a massive shift. I mean, I'm not in politics, I'm not a political expert. But from what I know about. I think this is quite. It's almost like New Age way of thinking. And I think it has to be for the benefit of the population, this kind of way of thinking.More individual based, more policy based. What do you think from your political background? Because I know you've been in politics for quite, quite a long time. How is this different to what you're used to in your own political career.

Narcis:

I mean, to be honest, this will be a bit more difficult for the normal voter, let's just say average voter to decide. Because in the past it was quite easy. Blue or red, you had two choices and then you could have like let's say a flavor of red or a flavor of blue. But it was still easier to decide the direction. Now actually, people need to pay a little bit more attention to the party policies. You know, actually read the program of the party and see, see what they want. Because if we are talking to, if we are entering now a policy directed era of politics, then yeah, it will matter. Now what, what are the policies that you as an individual care about and which parties out there are willing to make that happen. Right. So. And there's like at least 12 parties in Denmark. It's not like in US or I don't know if UK still has a couple more parties than, than two, but we have 12 here who got elected in the Parliament. So there's a lot of choices. And in Denmark, no matter how small you are, if you're there present at the negotiation table, you can influence a lot. I mean, I'm just looking at theModerates, right? They have influenced so much the, the policy of the government into how they perceive internationals. Right from the moment Moderates joined the government, the there has been a complete shift of how they look at internationals and how even the fact that they change the decision about international students, the fact that now they want international students again and they want every year the number to simply increase. Clearly a small party, a new party like the Moderates, it doesn't have any history. Itliterally has a couple of years only behind has managed to make a huge impact. So don't look only at traditional old parties. No matter how small the parties, if he has a chance to get in the Parliament, it can make a, a difference. As long as they know how to negotiate, as long as they know how to put themselves in situations where they can influence. Of course they can also be very, you know, radical in their approach and then nobody will want to work with them. It's just, you have to understand then Danish politics are consensus based and compromise based politics. Nobody will get exactly what they want. It's just not possible. It's unrealistic.

Wizzi:

It sounds like the biggest takeaway from all of what you've just said is that we really as voters, I'm not a voter, I'm not eligible, but the voters really do need. I just want to echo what you, you said really do need to get informed on what the policies are with, with party and really do some investigative work to make that vote count.

Narcis:

Would you agree that's, that's exactly how. And, but, but just want to comment on what you said, that you're not eligible to vote. Well, you are eligible to vote for the local and regional elections in Denmark. Even though you might not be able to vote for EU anymore,you still have that right. So there's still something interesting to follow and to care about Danish politics for you as well. There will be, after all, local elections in two years, in 2025. So you'll have the cheat. Have you voted before actually in Denmark?

Wizzi:

Not in Denmark, no. I've been here a year.

Narcis:

Oh, okay.

Wizzi:

And I'm from the UK. Well, I've been here about 18 months now, but no, I haven't voted in Denmark. I actually didn't think I could. You learn something new every day.

Narcis:

So now you can. In 2025 will be your first chance to vote.

Wizzi:

Fantastic. Well, I'll make sure that vote counts.

Narcis:

So keep an eye.

Wizzi:

Yeah, absolutely. Right. Next up on today's show is our Deep Dive segment. This is where we discuss a few of the big stories of the week. Nars, what are we covering first?

Narcis:

Well, we need to discuss about wages and taxes because I know all of us would like to keep more from our salary, right? We want to have more money in our pocket, we want to invest more. So that's exactly what the government is looking at as well. Unfortunately,we are in a situation where the government says, look, we have money. Like there they actually found 16 billion. They didn't know they had extra. So it's gonna be a very interesting 20, 24 year because there's there's, there are planned a lot of spendings next year. So It'll be a huge change year, a huge reform year, I call it. But in the same time they. The problem actually that Denmark is facing is actually attracting qualified talent. We simply are losing out now to Germany, to France, who also got more serious about it because they just also realized, oh my God, our population is getting very old. Who's going to pay our pensions? We have the same problem in Denmark. We need a hundred thousand skilled workers to come to Denmark in the next six years. A hundred thousand. You might think that's not a lot, but it is a lot when we're competing with almost all the Western countries in the world for those people. And Denmark unfortunately, is no longer top of the mind, like maybe used to be 10 years ago. So I think the government and all the next governments, no matter how right wing they might be, they will have to embrace the fact that they cannot move forward without making it more attractive for internationals to come here. But in the same time, they want more people to want to work. We still have.They want people to retire much later, they want younger people to start earlier to work. They want people to stop going to university. Simply too many people go to university. They want people to actually choose a vocational school where they actually learn, youknow, a trade, to be a carpenter, a trade, something that missing right now. We have plenty of people who can do theoretical things, but not so many who can actually implement those things. So we need skilled people. And I think that's, that's why they want to put so much money into vocational schools right now. Vocational schools, they want to make them state of the art, like something that you will not be able to find anywhere in Europe, because simply they want to make it cooler to go to a vocational school than actually going to the university. And that's just how it is. You know, from the beginning, the whole idea to make the whole country university educated wasn't a very good idea.

Wizzi:

They did the same thing in the UK a few years ago. I think it was the Labour government, Tony Blair, that decided that everybody should go to university or the majority of the population should go to university. And then what ended up happening was all these, what we call Mickey Mouse degrees started appearing. You could do a degree in like so many strange things and people were going and getting their degrees and being very happy they had their degrees and. But they aren't employable because nobody took their degrees seriously. And so, I mean, I wonder if it's a similar line of thinking if this, if a similar thing happened in Denmark that happened in England, and whether now this focus on vocational courses, do you think that's going to strengthen the workforce?

Narcis:

Yes, definitely. I think all these reforms will make it more attractive to work. We already see the fact that we have the lowest ever percentage of the population ever since measured of course of percentage of the population, that it's on some sort of social assistance from the public, from the state. We actually literally got a lot of people into work, but we still have, there's still up to 90000 people out there who need to find a job, some sort of a job. Maybe some people cannot work full time, but that's fine. But I think all of us need to get, get used to the idea that we cannot be part of a society without working, that that's part of who we are. We cannot just, you know, pretend like we are part of society and, and then we, I, I don't think that there are people among us who cannot work something or something else. There must be something you can do. I, I, I refuse to believe that, that there are people there who cannot work.

Wizzi:

It's a huge topic, especially considering disability and also mental health. Like some people will struggle more to have to be appropriately skilled and appropriate, have appropriate energy and capacity to do certain jobs.

Narcis:

Exactly.

Wizzi:

But perhaps we need to be more creative in the ways we earn money and maybe it needs to come from the top down and we need more encouragement to do. I mean, where does it, where does it start? What jobs should we do? Should we follow our passions and turn that into money? Or should we go get educated and follow a career path? What do you think we should be encouraging people to do, to get into work? And should we be trying to encourage even those that have difficulties to do something? Because I think for me personally the benefit of working is it gives you a bit of a purpose, it gives you some confidence. I think it's good for people to work.

Narcis:

Yes, it's necessary and I think it's a failure from society thinking that just that we cannot get certain people to, to work. I think we just need to be creative. And I really think every human has worth, every human can contribute, regardless of disability, regardless of whatever. There must be something where you can do something. Right? Then if what's missing is the technology missing to enable that person, is it what's missing? Maybe we should work on that, make it possible. Right? Don't focus on, on cassette. You're not helping a person by putting them on a side, making them invisible, trying to, ah, this person doesn't exist. It's there. We have provided enough to, you know, have the minimum requirements and. And that's it. No, I think the role of a society should be that you need to empower everyone. And to empower everyone need to give them a sense of worth. And how do you do that? You have to give them something that they feel they contribute. Work is one way, but work is also defined in many ways. Just don't imagine work eight to five in an office. You said. What should we encourage? To follow your passion or to make money. But I mean you. We are living in Denmark. Feel free to try out your passion. Kai tried out for a couple of years. But you're still working, right? If you're trying, that means you're working. If you're building stuff, if you're creating stuff, if you're writing, if you're going outside of the home and doing something, talking to people, that means you're working. So don't miss. Don't misunderstand me when I say everyone should be working.That I want everyone to be in some sort of a factory or an office or a farm. I just want everyone to actively pursue something. That's what I see as work, to be honest in my mind. Because from that always something happens. Maybe you start your own business.Absolutely amazing. Maybe it takes you in a certain direction. You meet someone who wants to have you around to work. Maybe you discover something that enables other people to work that couldn't do it before. It's. If you do stuff, things happen. It just. That's how it is. If you do nothing, nothing happens.

Wizzi:

It's so true. I mean, I had a. I had a period of time when I was. I was very unwell and I couldn't go out and earn money. I couldn't do what I was skilled in. I didn't really do anything. But I started volunteering. And then slowly, slowly I got my confidence back. I got in a better place. I felt like I was contributing. And now I'm. Now I'm running my own business and it's all going really well and I'm having a lovely time. But it's small steps. If you don't feel you're contributing, it's not good for you, is it? I really. I really agree with what you said.

Narcis:

And I think it will be worth it because salaries will. You'll get to keep more from your salary definitely in 2024. So just keep an eye on the financial low for next year and you'll see that There is some goodies there waiting for you, but I am almost 90% sure that there will be a higher deduction rate, let's just say deduction amount from your salary that you can keep next year.

Wizzi:

Before we sign off, we'd like to announce our plans to invite guest speakers onto this podcast to share further insights into the news of the week. If you would like to apply to be a guest on the Last Week in Denmark podcast, please email your name, topic of expertise, and a summary of your experience on your chosen topic to HelloIsMedia DK WizzMedia is spelled W I Z M E D I A. Thank you for tuning in today. We hope you found this podcast informative, interesting and of value. Narcis thank you very much. I've had a lovely time talking to you today. I hope you've enjoyed it as well.

Narcis:

Absolutely. It was so fun to be back and I know we took a long break, but now we are back and we're gonna be here every week for as long as our energy keeps us waking up every Sunday.

Wizzi:

If you do have any feedback for us, please do get in touch. You can use that helloisMedia DK email if you have any comments or you can comment on our social media posts. We'll be back next week on your favorite podcast platform. Just search Last Week inDenmark thank you very much for listening and goodbye for now.




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