Danish Immigration Policy Capsized

Zonka has posted a translation of an article from yesterday’s Jyllands-Posten about the current constitutional crisis in Denmark triggered by the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice.

The interesting thing about the crisis is how quickly events are moving, and how much they are being driven by sentiment at the grassroots level. The leaders at the very top, both in the EU and Denmark itself, are continually being forced to play catch-up. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is obviously hoping to salvage the European project and his future role in it — after all, what part could a Danish statesman play in post-Lisbon Europe, if Denmark is not a member of the grand enterprise?

Here’s what Jyllands-Posten had to say:

Danish Immigration Policy Capsized

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V) is without an answer to how he will maintain Denmark’s immigration policy after the ECJ rulings. Lawyers and Pia Kjærsgaard (DPP): The tough immigration policy is “capsized”.

Prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V) didn’t manage to remove the impression that Danish immigration policy is in crisis, when he returned back to the political scene after his summer vacation.

The ECJ have bit by bit dismantled the Danish mechanisms, which should have prevented that the possibility that the ECJ could be used to bypass the rules for family reunions — so much that both politicians and juridical experts calls the rules “undermined”, “capsized” and “hollowed out”.

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Anders Fogh Rasmussen promised, that “Danish immigration policy stands steady. The Government will not sit idle while the Danish family reunion rules are being hollowed out by the back entrance.”

“Fogh owes an answer”

But he didn’t tell how he intends to do it, says Pia Kjærsgaard (DPP):

“Fogh owes an answer about what he intends to do to make sure that the immigration policy stays firm, which it isn’t at the moment. The immigration policy is capsized. It is simply the foundation in the tightened rules [as opposed to the immigration law of 1983 — Zonka] we’re talking about,” says Pia Kjærsgaard.

Go over to Zonka’s and read the rest.