On Tuesday, the Danish parliament approved a government bill that provides for the abolition of a public holiday, with the aim of obtaining hundreds of millions of euros for military spending.
The proposal by the government, led by the social democrat Mette Frederiksen and also supported by the centre-right Liberals and the centre-Moderates, had been put forward in recent months and had caused huge protests among the opposition.
The feast that will be abolished is called “Store bededag” (which means “Day of the great prayer”) and has existed since the 17th century: it is a Christian feast which is celebrated every year on the fourth Friday after Easter. It is celebrated by people of the Lutheran faith, who are more than 70 percent in Denmark (under the Danish constitution, the Evangelical-Lutheran confession is the state religion).
Frederiksen had announced the government’s intention to abolish the holiday in December: according to the prime minister, one less public holiday would allow the state to earn about 400 million euros a year.
This money would be invested to increase the defense budget, with the aim of meeting NATO’s requests to all member countries of the alliance to allocate 2 percent of GDP to military spending. Denmark currently spends around 1.4 percent of its GDP on defence, and the government initially set itself the goal of reaching 2 percent by 2033, a target now brought forward to 2030.
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According to Frederiksen, the decision to speed up the pace was also due to the war in Ukraine which made greater investment in defense urgent. He also argued that one less public holiday would not be a big deal for the Danes, who already have 10 more public holidays during the year.
However, the government’s decision has displeased many people: first of all the bishops of the Danish Lutheran Church, and then the opposition parties, both of the right and of the left. For right-wing parties, the abolition of the holiday is a threat to Denmark’s Christian values and traditions, while left-wing parties especially criticized the fact that the government has effectively imposed one extra working day a year without starting a real dialogue with the trade unions. In the end, the proposal was approved with 95 votes in favor and 68 against.
