The Danish Parliament has started to ask about the “democratic values” to applicants who want nationality of the Nordic country. Three people who met all the requirements to obtain Danish citizenship have had to go through, for the first time, the procedure of being questioned by members of a Parliament committee to find out if they shared “the values of Danish society.” In this interview, the three applicants risked the possibility that the parliamentarians would deny their application to obtain a passport, even though they had already passed a test on general knowledge of the country and one on the Danish language.
The three people who underwent interviews They were chosen from more than 2,900 applicants of nationality after having published controversial comments on social networks. In one case, one of the applicants wrote in 2018: “Parliament should do something about your homosexuality,” in reference to one of the deputies arguing in favor of the ban on the burqa. In another message, the same person wrote on Facebook that the death in 2021 of Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist who drew the Prophet Muhammad “was good news.” Another of the applicants who had to face the interview compared Western leaders and politicians with Adolf Hitler in several messages, in addition to expressing his support for the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, according to the Ritzau news agency.
The interviews about democratic values with applicants for Danish nationality have raised a lot of controversy in the Parliament of the Scandinavian country. However, the coalition of parties that form the Government between social democrats, liberals and moderates, despite being divided on this issue, has initiated steps to extend the controversial interviews by consulting a committee of experts on their viability. “The government wants to apply controls in the future to ensure that people who are granted Danish nationality really share our democratic values,” The Ministry of Immigration reported in a note. However, the note did not specify whether the commission of experts should establish the criteria for which values or opinions are considered undemocratic in Denmark.
Division in the Government
After the interviews, the three applicants have been able to breathe a sigh of relief, since They have all been granted nationality. The questions that the deputies of the parliamentary commission asked have not been disclosed to the media, but according to the social democratic deputy Anders Kronborg, the conversations were positive and “served to get to know the people better.” From the anti-immigration group of the Danish People’s Party, its deputy Mikkel Bjørn explained to the media that “it was a very good, appropriate and constructive dialogue” despite the fact that the group later voted against granting nationality to two of the three applicants. On the other hand, from the Red-Green Alliance party, Peder Hvelplund stressed that it was “shameful, unworthy of a parliament and intimidating”, in short, “it was a bad day for democracy” said Hvelplund.
Between the three parties that form the Government There is no clear consensus on the issue. While social democrats and liberals are in favor of asking about “democratic values”, from the party of moderates, deputy Mohammad Rona expressed: “I do not believe that we combat anti-democratic thoughts and attitudes based on interrogations in Parliament.” “It has been very bureaucratic to look at 1,700 pages of documents for three interviewees, now imagine that we had to do this for thousands of citizens every year, no parliamentarian has time for that,” he added.
In addition to the discrepancies raised within the Government parties, the DR television network published, citing confidential sources, that within the Ministry of Justice there are also doubts about the legal bases for carrying out these interviews. According to DR, in an internal note from the Ministry they believe that this procedure could violate basic principles of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution. In response to this information, the Ministry of Justice has publicly said that the committee of experts now consulted by Parliament will also have to find a formula to make the proposal fit in accordance with the international conventions that Denmark follows.
Tightening of the citizenship law
Unlike most European countries where petitions to obtain nationality are processed in purely administrative procedures, Danish citizenship can only be granted to foreigners through what is called “legal naturalization.” This procedure means that all nationalization applications are presented together in a bill twice a year and this law must be approved by a majority in Parliament..
The criteria for qualifying for Danish nationality were tightened in 2021, when the Social Democrats governed with a simple majority and received the support of liberals and conservatives. Before 2017, these “legal naturalization” laws that allow foreigners to have citizenship were routinely approved by the Chamber of Deputies. However, for six years the Danish People’s Party has voted against them year after year, while other groups such as the conservatives or the Denmark Democrats have abstained on several occasions.
This parliamentary procedure, together with the tightening of citizenship requirements, make the requirements for obtaining Danish nationality among the strictest in the world, a process that on average takes applicants between 16 and 19 years to complete.
In this sense, the Danish Institute for Human Rights published a report in 2021 criticizing that only 65% of young people born and raised in Denmark obtain Danish nationality. The report also noted that, following the reform of the citizenship law, the number of people granted nationality each year is the lowest in the last 40 years.
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