After the Fonseca case: Committee majority outside the government wants to ban mandate buying

Majorities outside the government have asked the administration of the Folketing to prepare a law banning mandate buying.

A majority in the Danish Parliament’s Committee on Rules of Procedure will tighten the rules on whether members of parliament can be paid to resign from their mandate, the committee’s members, excluding the government, decided on Wednesday.

“The composition of the Folketing should be governed by how Danes vote on election day,” says Ole Birk Olesen, Liberal Alliance member of the committee.

The development comes after it emerged that Lars Løkke Rasmussen, as chairman of the Moderates, offered then-party member Mike Fonseca 370,000 kroner to quit the Folketing. This happened after Mike Fonseca had told the party that he had become a girlfriend of a 15-year-old girl.

After the case came to light in a book written by journalist and editor-in-chief Mads Brügger, opposition parties have demanded that the legality of the maneuver be investigated.

The immediate assessment from the Folketing’s lawyers has been that Lars Løkke Rasmussen has not acted illegally. Therefore, the parties around the government in the Committee on Rules of Procedure will now instruct the Folketing’s administration to prepare legislative preparatory work that could make it illegal.

“It has been crucial for a majority of the parties in the committee to make it absolutely clear that it should be illegal to buy a mandate, just as it is illegal to buy a vote,” says Peder Hvelplund, member of the committee for the Red-Green Alliance.

In the committee, the three government parties, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderates, have expressed their disagreement. Ole Birk Olesen is disappointed and surprised by this.

“I will not hide the fact that I am surprised that we have a Social Democratic Party and a Liberal Party in Denmark that do not believe that we should ensure that it is illegal to offer members of parliament money to resign from the Folketing,” he says.

The parties around the government may have a majority in the Rules of Procedure Committee. But if their new bill is to be passed, there must be a majority in the Folketingshallen. Here, the opposition has not yet succeeded in bringing the government into a minority – for example, because they have drawn on the North Atlantic mandates and several independents.

Ole Birk Olesen, however, believes that it is such an obvious matter that the government will ultimately have to vote for the proposal.

Wow-like

The Moderates’ group chairman, Henrik Frandsen, refuses to vote for the proposal.

“It seems like a hoax,” he says.

The proposal from the opposition is not well thought out, he believes, based on an argument that the proposal would affect Danish politicians who are offered jobs in, for example, the foreign service.

Henrik Frandsen highlights the member of parliament Anette Lind, who was offered the position of Consul General in Flensburg.

“They are promising a financial gain, while expecting you to resign your mandate in the Folketing,” he says.

Furthermore, Henrik Frandsen also mentions EU Commissioner Dan Jørgensen (S) and Margrethe Vestager (R) as examples of politicians who have been offered a higher salary to leave the Danish Parliament, as well as Michael Aastrup Jensen (V), who was recently appointed ambassador to the Council of Europe.

“We honestly think they have been too quick on the trigger to rule out any form of financial gain,” says Henrik Frandsen.

Ritzau is also trying to get comment from the other two government parties.

Updating…

Ritzau