Summer news roundup: Mermaid cage fight

The New York Times reports that the estate of Edvard Eriksen, the sculptor who created the famous Little Mermaid that sits on her haunches in Langelinie Harbor – one of Copenhagen's biggest tourist draws – is suing the village of Asaa in northern Jutland for displaying another version of the Hans Christian Andersen figure. The heirs of the original sculptor not only demand compensation but insist that the “copy” be destroyed.

The original scuplture was a gift to the city of Copenhagen in 1913 from Carlsberg Brewery founder Carl Jacobsen. The sculptors' heirs have often sued artists over rights to the mermaid image, with some success, and the copyright expires in 2029. The Asaa Mermaid sculptor, Palle Mørk, denied deliberate appropriation. His mermaid is made of granite, whereas the Copenhagen version is made of bronze, and is chubbier. "I didn't think we destroyed art works in Denmark," said Mørk. "That's something the Taliban do." 

New Right chair promoting public-sector layoffs. Photo: Søren Bidstrup.

So sue me too!
Now Mermaid No. 3 is stealing attention. The libertarian Nye Borgerlige (New Right) party launched its biggest policy campaign, featuring cuts in taxes and social services (DK). It succeeded in positioning itself as not only the most anti-tax and most anti-immigration party but also the one with the hottest party leader, Pernille Vermund, shown above. She's "ready with a drastic plan," says the ad, "Will make big changes to Denmark." The main beneficiary of the campaign may be the Danish People’s Party, which had been losing voters to the New Right but now stands to reclaim some who didn't realize how much the party wants to reduce social welfare.

Combatting EU bureaucracy

The Danish People’s Party can use a boost because Morten Messerschmidt, its vice chair and “crown prince,” has been given a conditional six-month prison sentence for swindling EU funds (DK). The money had been intended for a conference in Skagen, Denmark, in 2015 on European issues involving MELD, an international (Euroskeptical) conservative confederation, but the conference apparently consisted only of the party’s usual summer meetings. The charges also included falsifying EU documents. Messerschmidt is known as a sharp debater, but his party colleagues' testimony at the extraordinary trial gave no support for his position. He will appeal the sentence.

Nursing a grudge

The government pronounced sentence on the two-month nurses’ strike (DK). With no progress in negotiations, it intervened and ordered the nurses back to work, causing some to doubt the continuing efficacy of the "Danish model" of labor relations. The hospitals were accumulating about two years of backlogs in elective surgery, and the nurses had exhausted their strike funds. The union never gained much public support for an additional wage increase. Perhaps they thought they would be rewarded for their heroic efforts during the pandemic, but people apparently had their enough of their own pandemic problems to worry about.