Coronavirus DK: Growing chorus: LIBERATE us from red tape

Some people are getting impatient with the government’s “gradual and controlled” reopening. That has led to a reversal of the so-called “midnight rule” (DK) for large parties at hotels and restaurants. According to the government’s plan for the relaxation of pandemic restrictions, restaurants and bars were allowed to open but must close by midnight. The rationale was that if people keep drinking into the night, they will be less careful about observing social distancing and good hygiene. The rule was extended for the sake of consistency to cover private gatherings held at these locations and other rented premises for wedding receptions and other large parties.

Cinderella versus the Nanny State

The right-wing opposition parties, along with the Social Liberal Party, thought this was going too far. They called the rule an expression of a “nanny mentality” and said that during the summer, the high season for such gatherings, the parties would just migrate at midnight to private homes and continue in the yard. This faction constituted a parliamentary majority and threatened to overturn the rule, but the Social Democratic government acceded to their wishes. Now parties can continue through the night as long as the gatherings involve people who know one another and others are not allowed in, they sit down, and they observe social distancing. 

When Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup was asked what this concession meant about how much the government has regulated things, he replied, “Although it resembles a small problem, it is a problem that has received much attention and therefore shall have this solution.”

European hordes clamoring at the gate

On Thursday, the EU Commission recommended that member states open their borders (DK) to other EU countries on June 15. Denmark’s plan is to keep its borders closed to all but a few countries until August 31. The EU cannot force individual countries to open their borders, but almost all the member states are planning to open their borders by June 15. The EU Commission also recommends that member states open the borders to countries outside the EU that have the pandemic under control as well as the EU countries. 

The European Commissioner, Ylva Johansson, happens to be Swedish, and Sweden has been pressing Denmark to allow its citizens access to Denmark. Sweden has a much higher infection rate than Denmark and its other neighbors, Norway and Finland. “There are perhaps 20,000 infectious Swedes,” says Christian Wejse, a specialist in infectious diseases at Aarhus University, “and with open borders they could quickly start new cases here.”

Bureaucratic jungle

On Friday, the left-leaning daily Information published an editorial calling the government’s reopening policy a “farce” (DK). The government has been preoccupied with small distinctions in detailed rules about hotel stays, high school graduation celebrations, reunifications with partners abroad, and arbitrary closing times for restaurants. Freedoms that people had taken for granted have been passed out in small bit after political negotiations, and it has created a bureaucratic jungle of arbitrary, special laws. People have difficulty understanding them and will stop following them instead of focusing on the crucial factors of social distancing and washing their hands.