Europe

Those awkward Danes

Whatever the result of Denmark’s impending referendum on whether to join the euro, the Danes have once again raised important questions about their own—and the European Union’s—future

|copenhagen

FOR the sixth time since 1972, when Danes voted to join what became the European Union, a Danish referendum will have an effect on the rest of Europe that will be hugely disproportionate to the country's own small size. The latest opinion polls suggest that the nej-sayers are pulling ahead. The omens for the country's Social Democratic prime minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, who is leading the ja-campaign, look bleak.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Those awkward Danes”

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