Panel Two: Mette Frederiksen
On 17 February 2020, seventeen leases were terminated.
The apartments were in Schackenborgvænge, a public housing estate in Denmark.
It began with a category.
First there were “ghetto areas.”
Then “hard ghetto areas.”
Later, “transformation areas.”
The law did not look only at poverty.
It did not look only at unemployment.
It did not look only at education, crime, or the share of residents outside the labor market.
It also counted origin.
An area could be classified as a parallel society if more than half its residents were immigrants or descendants from “non-Western” countries, and if it also met two of four socioeconomic criteria.
“Non-Western” meant all countries in Africa, South and Central America, Asia, and Oceania, except Australia and New Zealand.
If the classification remained for five consecutive years, a development plan had to be drawn up.
The plan had to reduce public family housing to no more than 40 percent.
In Mjølnerparken, about 260 apartments were to be sold.
The category moved through plans.
Then through buildings.
Then through leases.
On 17 February 2020, the housing association terminated seventeen leases.
Tenants from Schackenborgvænge and Mjølnerparken sued.
The cases moved through the Danish courts and reached Luxembourg.
On 18 December 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled.
The Advocate General had called it direct discrimination.
The Court did not.
It said the criterion belonged within the scope of European equal-treatment law, and left the assessment to the Danish court.
Leases had been terminated.
Residents had been rehoused.
WE&P by: EZorrillaMc&Co.
Sources
Court of Justice of the European Union, Case C-417/23, Slagelse Almennyttige Boligselskab Afdeling Schackenborgvænge and Others v MV and Others, judgment of 18 December 2025.
Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-417/23.
Bo-Vita, “Købsaftale om karré to og tre i Mjølnerparken er indgået.”
Bo-Vita, “Digital fortælling: Vejen væk fra ghettolisten.”
Bo-Vita, “Retssager om permanent genhusning i Mjølnerparken er afsluttet.”
Travel in Life 