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Political co-operation in Øresund Region losing public support

Lucie Rychla
November 29th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Locals seem to care less and less about the partnership between Scania and Greater Copenhagen

The Swedish public’s support for the new Danish-Swedish political collaboration in the Øresund Region has diminished, according to a survey carried out by the SOM Institute in Gothenburg in the autumn of 2015 just before the border controls were introduced.

Researchers found that most people in Scania (71 percent) do not care one way or the other about the ongoing partnership between Greater Copenhagen and the southern region of Sweden.

Some 14 percent of the 2,000 respondents said collaboration between the two regions was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’.

The survey also revealed that support to build a fixed link between Helsingborg and Helsingør fell from 44 percent in 2011 to 36 percent in 2015.

READ MORE: Copenhagen and Malmø considering Øresund metro link

Work in Denmark
Following the news in Copenhagen has also become less important to residents in Scania – interest fell from 45 percent in 2011 to 43 percent in 2015.

Fewer Swedes wish to move to Copenhagen or work there, although this does not apply to the younger generations.

Some 50 percent of those aged 16-29 can imagine working in Denmark.

“Perhaps the regional co-operation should focus more on the tangible benefits: jobs, housing and the opportunity to travel by plane from Copenhagen Airport,”  Jesper Falkheimer, a professor of strategic communications at Lund University, told News Øresund.

“Then it would become a more concrete discussion in the region.”

 


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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.

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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.”