On Monday morning, Minister of Immigration and Integration Morten Bødskov announced that the Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet) would reverse course and yield to pressure from their coalition partners.
They will reintroduce L98, a bill that would naturalise 2,055 applicants for Danish citizenship. The bill will be considered in the first half of 2027.
However, the applicants will be re-evaluated to ensure they still meet the requirements, as some circumstances may have changed since January 2026, when the bill was first introduced.
The other roughly 17,000 applicants currently waiting for their applications to be considered can still expect to wait for an expert group to finish its work by the end of the year and for political parties to negotiate the new naturalisation requirements they will have to meet.
Chairman and Deputy Chairman disagree
The Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Naturalisation Committee disagree substantially on the announcement.
Chairman Mikkel Bjørn of the Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti) has accused the Social Democrats of breaking their promises.
On X on Sunday, before it was publicly known that L98 would be reintroduced, he wrote: “Now Islamists, anti-democrats, and criminals can soon be granted citizenship, even though the Social Democrats promised the opposite.
“This also applies to people who can barely complete a sentence in Danish.
“I would call it a huge betrayal, but unfortunately it is only what one could expect from a Social Democratic party that has entered government with the Social Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre).”
Deputy Chairman Peder Hvelplund of the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten), who spoke to The Danish Dispatch last week about the issue, celebrated the decision.
On X on Monday morning he wrote: “It’s positive that the government is now reintroducing the bill that grants citizenship to 2,055 Danes and their children.
“The pressure has worked.
“It is a huge relief for those affected that they will now get what they were promised, since they meet the strict requirements: they go to work, pay their taxes, have no criminal record, no debt to the public sector, and so on.”
Blue bloc criticises the decision
Other parties in the blue bloc were quick to join Bjørn in criticising the reintroduction of L98.
Venstre party leader Troels Lund Poulsen wrote in a Facebook post: “I find that completely incomprehensible, and I am concerned that the Social Democrats are once again letting the Red-Green Alliance and the Social Liberals set the course on immigration policy.
“Because in the Liberal Party we believe Denmark can be an open country without being a naive one.“Our openness must never mean that we grant Danish citizenship to people who actively work against our democracy and our values.”
It should be noted that Venstre was part of the government that introduced L98 in January 2026, so its recent opposition to L98 is itself a U-turn.
Morten Messerschmidt, leader of the Danish People’s Party, wrote on X: “The situation is that the Social Democrats have now lost the internal power struggle over immigration policy within the government.
“That means it is now the Social Liberal Party, the Green Left (Socialistisk Folkeparti) and the Moderates (Moderaterne) who are dictating immigration policy on citizenship.
“You cannot claim to pursue a strict immigration policy while at the same time accepting a practice that grants citizenship without the screening that prevents Islamists from obtaining it.
“The truth is that the Social Democrats have lost their grip on immigration policy.”
Liberal Alliance leader Alex Vanopslagh also wrote on Facebook: “The government now wants to hand out citizenship to 2,055 applicants without screening them for anti-democratic views.
“Based on our experience, we must expect that among the applicants there are people whose values run directly counter to those Denmark is built on.
“Do I know for certain who they are? No. That is precisely what the government refuses to investigate with a screening. But I do know that surveys among Muslims in Denmark have shown widespread homophobic attitudes and considerable support for the view that Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel was justified. And people who support Islamist and antisemitic terror against civilians should of course not be granted citizenship.”
Leader of the Conservative People’s Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti) Mona Juul has not yet commented on the reintroduction.
However, the party’s spokesperson on naturalisation, Christian Vigilius, wrote on X: “I simply don’t think it makes any sense that the government now wants to push through more than 2,000 citizenships under the old rules, at the same time as the government itself says those rules are not good enough.”
Inger Støjberg, leader of the Denmark Democrats (Danmarksdemokraterne), has likewise not commented yet.
Ulrik Knudsen, the Denmark Democrats’ spokesperson on naturalisation, however, wrote on X: “Danish citizenship is not a right. It is the finest gift Denmark can give. That is why it is of course important that we first find a model for screening for extremist views beforehand.”
Little word from the left
Aside from Hvelplund, most other politicians on the political left have not yet commented on the reintroduction.
The Alternative (Alternativet), the confidence-and-supply party that is closely allied with the Red-Green Alliance on this issue, has not commented.Nor have any other parties in the current government.
However, Minister of Immigration and Integration Morten Bødskov of the Social Democrats wrote in his press release this morning: “We have the strictest immigration policy ever. We must continue to have that, and of course that also applies to foreigners who want to become Danish citizens.
“That is why the government believes a model should be introduced in which we screen future applicants for Danish citizenship for anti-democratic views. Danish citizenship should only be for those who are loyal to Denmark and who have embraced Danish values.
“We should of course not give it to the kind of people who, for example, glorify terror, support sharia, and oppose the rights of homosexuals.”