DANISH POLITICS (7)

It seems that the hole into which former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has dug himself gets bigger and bigger. The 20 October press conference, at which he presented details of all his first-class travel and hotel costs, was supposed to be the definitive end to the story. Unfortunately, as journalists pored over the bills and expense claims in the following days, the story refused to die. In particular, they came across one glaring inconsistency. Mr. Rasmussen swore at the press conference that he had never received cash per diems from GGGI, the organisation in question, which he had jetted around the world promoting. This turns out not to be true.

The amounts involved (under US$1,000) are trivial, particularly when set in the context of those first-class airfares. But they matter for three reasons. First, Mr. Rasmussen should have reported them to the authorities. Danish ex-Prime Ministers, who run the risk of being out of a job from one day to another, are given a generous state salary. However, that salary is reduced krone for krone by any other income that the person does in fact earn (in other words, if they get a well-paid business job, then they don't need the state salary). By not declaring those per diems, Mr. Rasmussen is in effect getting more from the state than he should.

Secondly, in certain circumstances, those per diems are taxable. So, again, by not declaring them, Mr. Rasmussen is not paying the requisite amount of tax.

Possibly cheating the state and possibly not paying taxes are bad things for any Danish politician to do. Which brings me to the third reason. Mr. Rasmussen is single-handedly undermining his own credibility as a once-and-future Prime Minister, and harming all of the right-wing opposition parties, for whom a great part of their electability is their supposedly strong economic and financial management. It's not a pretty sight.

Walter Blotscher