COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Election billboards across Copenhagen warn immigrants against thinking they can exploit Danish welfare benefits. “If you come to Denmark, you have to work,” the posters say.
The message is not intended for immigrants, but for Danes who are concerned about foreigners abusing their welfare system. And the messenger is not some far-right politician; it’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party.
Before Denmark’s parliamentary election Thursday, both Thorning-Schmidt’s left-leaning alliance and the center-right opposition have promised to further tighten Denmark’s controls on immigration.
