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Danish Pizzeria Owner Sells Restaurant

Posted on: Friday, 25 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

A Danish pizzeria owner who refused to serve French and German tourists because of their governments' opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq is selling his restaurant. But he vowed Friday to pursue his pro-American crusade by selling frozen pizzas on the Internet.

Last month, Aage Bjerre was fined 5,000 kroner (U.S. $780) for refusing to sell pizzas to German and French tourists, calling them "anti-American." Bjerre appealed the sentence and Denmark's Western High Court is expected to rule Aug. 13. If the ruling is upheld he will lose his restaurant permit for having refused to comply with a court decision.

"I've sold my pizzeria because I think I'll lose again," Bjerre told The Associated Press by telephone from Fanoe island, in western Denmark.

In February, Bjerre stuck two homemade signs with bars through images of people colored in the hues of the French and German flags on the pizzeria's front.

Now he's working out details for the frozen pizza menu and said the soon-to-be Web site would be in Danish, English, German and French.

"When people click on the German and the French icons, they will get the pictogram," Bjerre said. "No frozen pizzas to these people."

Since Bjerre started his boycott, he claims to have turned down German and French tourists every day, and has lost at least 50,000 kroner (U.S. $7,800) because of a drop in business and from vandalism to the shop's front.

But he also has received about 300 letters from around the world offering support, including one with an invitation to come to Chicago in September, which he has accepted. He wouldn't say who invited him.

Bjerre said he would only stop the boycott "if the governments of France and Germany change their attitude toward the United States and support Washington wholeheartedly."

The island, 200 miles southwest of the capital, Copenhagen, is a popular spot for visitors from neighboring Germany. Of the approximately 100,000 tourists who come, 60 percent are German.

The island has a year-round population of 3,300.

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