A secret emergency law prepared in Denmark during the Cold War would have allowed the government to impose sweeping restrictions on civilian life if the country was attacked. The draft, known as the skuffelov, or “drawer law”, was kept out of public debate and was never passed by the Danish Parliament.
In 1959, the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) adopted legislation to prepare the country for war and other major emergencies. Alongside it, a much more extensive contingency text was prepared for a situation in which Parliament could no longer meet. Only a small number of politicians knew about it, according to an account published by Danish broadcaster DR.
What Denmark’s secret emergency law would have allowed
The draft’s full text has never been made public. But Bodil Frandsen, a historian and museum curator at Nordjyske Museer, has examined it in the course of her research. She told DR that it envisaged powers to ban public gatherings, requisition resources and compel civilians to carry out particular jobs.
Transport and construction businesses could have been ordered to hand over machinery or perform work near a war zone. People who had not been called up for military service might have received only a few hours of training before being assigned to operate heavy equipment. The obligations could have applied to women as well as men, with penalties for refusing orders.
Frandsen described the central dilemma behind these preparations as a question of how far democratic rights could be restricted in order to preserve democracy itself. The measures were part of a secret contingency plan, not powers automatically brought into force by the 1959 parliamentary vote.
A government prepared to work from an underground bunker
The plan formed part of Denmark’s preparations for a nuclear conflict between East and West. The country was close to the Cold War’s dividing line, and officials feared it could be drawn into a European war from its first days.
If an attack prevented Parliament from assembling, government ministers and senior civil servants were expected to continue running the country from REGAN Vest, a fortified bunker in northern Jutland. According to Nordjyske Museer, which now operates the site as a Cold War museum, the underground complex was built secretly in the 1960s, around 60 metres below ground, with space for approximately 350 people, including the monarch.
The bunker was intended to protect the continuity of government. The drawer law addressed a different problem: how the state might mobilise workers, equipment and essential services while the ordinary political process was disrupted.
What remains in Danish emergency legislation today
Denmark subsequently reorganised its civil defence arrangements, adopting a consolidated emergency management law in 1992. The current Emergency Management Act (beredskabsloven) still provides for extraordinary measures during emergencies. Section 20 permits rescue services to require private equipment and vehicles for an operation, with a right to compensation. Section 17 also provides for evacuation where necessary.
These are publicly established legal powers, rather than the unpublished Cold War draft. In February 2026, the Ministry of Resilience and Preparedness opened a consultation on a separate proposal that would allow state rescue services to assume strategic command of the wider emergency response in exceptional situations.
Frandsen cautioned against treating the Cold War plans as a ready-made answer to today’s risks. Modern preparedness must address not only military attack but also cyber incidents, damage to infrastructure and dependencies that cross national borders. Her argument is that resilience needs to be considered when essential systems are designed, rather than added only after they are in place.
