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Election pork a hit in Christiansborg and in the kitchen

Lucie Rychla
June 18th, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

The election is a great opportunity to get stuck into one of Denmark’s traditional dishes

Valgflæsk are promises politicians make to get elected. Bon apetit! (photo: Christian Jensen)

It’s the big election day in Denmark and that means truck loads of ‘valgflæsk’ (‘election pork’) – a Danish idiom for promises politicians make in order to get votes.

But it has also become a tradition in the culinary sense, as fried pork is being more ravenously devoured on election day than ever before.

Huge demands
The supermarket chain Coop expects to sell about 50 tonnes of ‘valgflæsk’ today, which is more than double of what the supermarket chain sells on an ordinary Thursday, reports Politiken.

Slaughterhouse giants Danish Crown is expecting even more significant increase in sales.

“This week, we have sold between five and six times as much bacon to canteens and restaurants than we normally do,” Jens Hansen, the communications manager at Danish Crown, said.

Overwhelmed by orders
Danish households have also been diligently buying the popular pork slices this week.

According to Hansen, Danish Crown has increased its sales in shops threefold since Monday and its employees had to work rigorously to accommodate the many requests.

“We have got so many orders for pork slices over the last few days that it has been a struggle to deliver,” Hansen noted.

Danes love pork
Even smaller shops have noticed the increased demands for ‘valgflæsk’.

A sandwich shop T. H. Sørensen in Amager has sold about four times more pork slices than usual.

“We have a lot of pre-orders. We’ve noticed that people are really getting into this and think it’s fun,” Kristine Strange, a co-owner of the sandwich shop, said.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”