The far-reaching new law will remain in force until March 2021, when it will expire under a sunset clause.
“I was touched when I saw the whole Parliament standing up and voting for this,” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke told Danish state broadcaster
DR after the law passed.
“It is time to put aside party politics and be together to do what it takes to bring Denmark safely through this situation.”
Jens Elo Rytter, law professor at Copenhagen University, said the measures were unlike anything passed in the last 75 years “It is certainly the most extreme since the Second World War,” he told the
Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “There have been some powerful encroachments in various terror packages. But this goes further.”
Trine Maria Ilsøe, DR’s court correspondent, said that Danish citizens could face prosecution under the new law if they refused to comply with health authorities’ demands. “It means that you could be sentenced to a punishment if you, for example, refuse to allow yourself to be tested for coronavirus,” she said.