Yearbook 2010
Faroe Islands. In March the Lagtinget presented a
proposal for a new constitution for the Faroe Islands, where
it was mentioned, among other things, that all power lies
with the people of the Faroe Islands. At the same time, the
national community was not mentioned with Denmark. The
Danish government reacted, saying that such a law would
contravene Denmark's constitution and mean that the Faroe
Islands in practice left the national community.
There was also internal disagreement about the proposal
in the Faroese Lagtinget, and teammate Kaj Leo Johannesen
from the right-wing Unionist Party declared during the
summer that the proposal would not go through as long as he
was a layman (head of government). However, the Leftist
Party Republicans promised to push the issue forward.
In June, Denmark's Foreign Minister Lene Espersen visited
the Faroe Islands and explained that the island should not
be allowed to resume catching larger whales for a ten-year
period. The reaction was sharp in all political camps in
Tórshavn, where Espersen was accused of arrogance.
French ex-actress Brigitte Bardot wrote to the Danish
Queen in August, urging Denmark to stop the Faroe Islands'
hunting of gate whales. The bardot called the hunt for mass
slaughter, but the Faroese authorities said it was no worse
than the killing of animals in a slaughterhouse. Every year
over a thousand greyhounds are caught, which is really a
dolphin species.
The EU declared in September that it could not accept
that the Faroe Islands and Iceland increased the quotas for
mackerel while the EU is trying to keep the quotas down. The
Faroe Islands had then increased their annual quota for
mackerel catch from 25,000 to 85,000 tonnes.
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