Childre wore red, white and blue "RAF caps", Danis' customers walked out of cafes when Germans entered, and the ban on demonstrations was flouted by groups who gathered to sing patriotic songs. On September 1, 1940, an estimated 739,000 Danes gathered around the country to sing the same song simultaneously. The king demonstrated his continued presence by riding on horseback each morning through Copenhagen. Meanwhile, the Danish government continued its balancing act, knowing that failure to cooperate at least to some degree would lead to a complete Nazi takeover. It was with this in mind that Denmark signed the AntiComintern Pact making communism illegal, but insisted on the insertion of a clause which allowed only Danish police to arrest Danish communists. Vilhelm Buhl who was appointed Pnme Minister on May 3,1942, had been an outspoken opponent of the signing of the AntiComintern Pact and it was thought he might end the apparent appeasement. Instead, the tension between occupiers and occupied were to climax with Hitler's anger at the curt note received from Christian X in response to the Fuhrer's birthday telegram. Although it was the king's standard reply. Hitler took the mere "thank you" as an insult and immediately replaced his functionaries in Denmark with hardliners who demanded a new proGerman government. and Scavenius took control, and, in 1943, with the idea of showing that free elections could take place under a German occupation, elections were called. The government asked the public to demonstrate faith in national unity by voting fi" any one of the four parties in the coalition. received overwhelming support in the large'' ever turnout for a Danish election. Awareness that German defeat was becomffl inevitable stimulated a wave of strikes ttirouF out the country. Berlin declared a state of gency in Denmark, and demanded that the Dan government comply which it refused to Germany took over administration of the cou interning many politicians. The king was asK appoint a cabinet from outside the folkeM? Germans were free for the first time to round up Danish Jews. Resistance was organised under the leadership of the Danish Freedom Council Sabotage was carefully coordinated, and an underground army, soon comprising over 43,000, prepared to assist in the Allied invasion. In June 1944, rising antiNazi violence led to a curfew being imposed in Copenhagen and assemblies of more than five people being banned, to which workers responded with a spontaneous general strike. German plans to starve the city had to be abandoned after five days. ¦ The postwar period After the German surrender in May 1945, a liberation government was created, composed equally of prewar politicians and members of the Danish Freedom Council, with Vilhelm Buhl as Prime Minister. Its internal differences earned the administration the nickname "the debating club".