Danish government plans to scrap bank holiday to increase defence spending

New coalition’s proposal to remove Great Prayer Day from calendar met with criticism by church and business owners

Denmark’s new government, the country’s first left-right coalition since the 1970s, has got off to an unpopular start with the announcement that one of its earliest policy proposals is to scrap a bank holiday.

The Social Democrat prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, appointed right-leaning political rivals as key ministers in her new reform-oriented government on Thursday, after close-run parliamentary elections last month.