Danmarksdemokraterne leader Inger Støjberg wants new students at Danish youth education programs to shake hands with school management of the opposite sex and sign a declaration on Danish values. Students who refuse would lose their place.
DR reports that Støjberg set out the proposals on August 20, 2026. New students on ungdomsuddannelser would have to shake hands with the principal or another member of school management on the first day of school. The handshake would have to be with someone of the opposite sex.
According to DR, students who refuse would lose their place on the program. Støjberg compares the requirement to the ceremony where new Danish citizens shake hands with a mayor. She says the handshake demonstrates that women and men are of equal worth.
The second proposal would require all students on youth education programs to sign a declaration on specific Danish values. Støjberg names gender equality, the right to choose one’s own partner, and refraining from negative social control. Students who refuse to sign would not be admitted, and those who break the declaration could be expelled.
Støjberg told DR that she also wants students to report classmates who do not respect the values they have signed. Asked whether this would create a school of surveillance, she said she hopes to create a school with open-mindedness. Nobody should be pressured into wearing a headscarf or fasting during Ramadan, per her account.
Principals and students push back
Maja Bødtcher-Hansen, chair of Danske Gymnasier and principal of Frederiksberg Gymnasium, shares the concern about negative social control. As reported by DR, she does not believe hardline requirements and orders are the solution. She points instead to distributing students differently and giving more resources to schools with many students of non-Western background.
Oscar Tønsberg Hoffmann, chair of Danske Gymnasieelevers Sammenslutning, calls the package symbolic politics that will not work. According to his statement to DR, the proposals would mainly make life difficult for Muslim upper secondary students. He argues they would be forced to focus unnecessarily on their religion at school.
The two proposals form part of a larger package that Danmarksdemokraterne presented later on Thursday. Berlingske reported on August 16, 2026 that the party wants students expelled for speaking languages other than Danish at school. Støjberg singled out Arabic and framed the measure as a response to negative social control.
DR reported on August 18, 2026 that the language proposal is one of at least 15 measures the party plans to table. Principals and teachers responded critically to that element.
Støjberg links the package to Berlingske’s reporting on social control at three gymnasiums in the Copenhagen area. She also cites the campaign by the organization Hizb ut-Tahrir aimed at upper secondary students. She says the state must set a firm foot down against social control and what she calls a dominance culture. Related coverage: mandatory school tests and the citizenship probation proposal.
