They are connected by the Oresund Bridge, which Scandinavian TV fans will recognise as the focal point for crime series The Bridge.

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In return, Danes, with a krone of their own (both countries belong to the European Union, but neither uses the euro), are increasingly taking the Oresund bridge-and-tunnel into Sweden to buy low-taxed children's shoes and clothing.

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The most recent centre-right government, which was briefly in office under Carl Bildt in the early 1990s, was blighted by a deep recession, followed by a huge row over whether to build the Oresund bridge to Denmark.

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