Danish People's Party calls for English-language tax

A Danish People’s Party MP has called for a tax on all adverts containing English words in a move to protect the ‘beautiful’ Danish language, according to Seven59.dk and the Daily Telegraph.

The populist party’s culture spokesman, Alex Ahrendtsen, said any company using English in an advertising campaign should be hit with an extra tax.

“We can’t ban them from making ads in English but we can make them think twice by hitting them in the wallet,” he said. “The increasing English usage annoys me no end.”

Danes are arguably the world’s best speakers of English as a second language.

The English language is ubiquitous in Denmark, with slang words frequently used by Danes, and advertising agencies building campaigns with English slogans. It’s this which has invoked the ire of Ahrendtsen.

He blames Denmark’s “language anxiety” for rise of English in Denmark. “We are afraid of not being hip and international, so we tend to do things in English and not do things in Danish.”

However the party’s foreign affairs spokesman Søren Espersen denies taxing adverts in foreign langauges is official party policy.

Read the Daily Telegraph article here.

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