Danish lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favor of abolish a spring holiday to use savings and increase defense spending, despite strong criticism from the opposition, trade unions and the country’s bishops.
The left-right coalition led by Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in power since December, had announced its intention to abolish the public holiday.
In a vote of 95 to 68, the 179-seat Folketing approved the centrist coalition government’s bill to scrap great day of prayer, or High Day of Prayer, which falls on the fourth Friday after Easter. Some 16 lawmakers were absent.
Savings from scrap holidays are estimated to be around 3 billion crowns ($426 million) per year. The ruling coalition of Social Democrats, centre-right liberals and centre-moderates seeks to achieve the NATO target spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defense by 2030, partly in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I don’t think it’s a problem to have to work an extra day,” explained Mette Frederiksen. “We have to deal with huge expenses in defense and security, health, psychiatry and green transformation”, he detailed in his general policy speech.
“There is no financial leeway,” he said.
In Denmark, where political consensus is the norm, opposition left and right have joined in scorning the government’s decision.
Opposition lawmakers called the bill “stupid”, “crazy” and “absolutely wrong”, but did not agree to call a referendum on the issue. In Denmark, 60 lawmakers can demand a plebiscite.
“Arrest the thief,” Karsten Hønge, a member of the Socialist People’s Party, said during a three-hour parliamentary debate. “The government is ordering people to work one more day.”
Several lawmakers have expressed concern that eliminating the vacation would complicate negotiations later this year between employers and unions over wages and working conditions. In Denmark, the government traditionally stays out of these issues.
Workers in Denmark currently have up to 11 holidays; the figure is lower in years when Christmas and New Year fall on a weekend.
The loss of the feast, created more than 300 years ago when a Danish bishop merged several lesser feasts, sparked a National backlash of almost 6 millionwhere over 73% of the population belong to the State Lutheran Church, although less than 3% of the population are regular parishioners.
Unions have launched an online petition which has garnered nearly 500,000 signatures, while Denmark’s 10 Lutheran bishops have spoken of a “breach of trust”.
The government controls 89 seats in parliament and is supported by four legislators representing the semi-independent Danish territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands.