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Former health minister Nørby to challenge Støjberg for Denmark Liberal deputy leadership

Former minister Ellen Trane Nørby on Monday announced her candidacy for the deputy leader position with the Venstre (Liberal) party.

Published: 10 September 2019 10:19 CEST

Former health minister Nørby to challenge Støjberg for Denmark Liberal deputy leadership

Ellen Trane Nørby in January this year. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

The leadership of the party, the largest on Denmark’s right, is up for grabs after former PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen and deputy Kristian Jensen recently announced their resignations.

With Jakob Ellemann-Jensen expected to take over as leader, Støjberg, an outspoken former minister of immigration and integration, was the only contender for the deputy position until Nørby’s announcement on Monday.

The former minister for health told Jydske Vestkysten she would do a better job of uniting the party than Støjberg, after infighting following the loss of the general election in June.

READ ALSO: Foreign doctors must meet Danish language standards: Nørby

Nørby also detailed her decision in a long social media post.

“The absolute most important task for the new Liberal leadership is to unite the party. It’s a huge job. I want to be part of fulfilling that task,” she wrote on Facebook.

The new leader and deputy leader will be voted for by members at the Liberal party extraordinary national congress on September 21st.

“This means that Liberal members and delegates will have the opportunity to choose the profile of their deputy leader,” Nørby told Jydske Vestkysten.

Prior to taking on the ministerial portfolio for health, Nørby also served as minister for children and education and minister for equality.

Some elements of the party may see her as a safer option than Støjberg, who is set to face a parliamentary inquiry into an illegal 2016 directive issued when she was immigration minister.

READ ALSO: Former immigration minister Støjberg to face renewed scrutiny in official inquiry

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Lawyers criticise Danish parliament for ‘special treatment’ of party leader

Parliament’s decision not to take Vanopslagh’s case to the courts suggests that the public and politicians are not equal before the law, according to two lawyers who spoke to broadcaster DR.

As an elected member of parliament, Liberal Alliance leader Vanopslagh was provided with a free apartment in Copenhagen and given parliamentary subsidies for “double household” (dobbelt husførelse) because he was registered as living at an address in Struer, West Jutland.

It later emerged he did not genuinely use the Struer address as his home and had thereby broken the rules. He later paid back the subsidies in full and returned the Copenhagen apartment.

“I’m not for one second in doubt that if this had been a municipal case, the municipality would have asked for the money back and reported him to the police,” lawyer Mads Pramming, a benefit fraud specialist, told broadcaster DR.

In 2019, parliament – including Liberal Alliance – voted for stricter rules on benefit fraud, including obliging municipalities to report certain types of cases to the police.

“It looks a bit funny that parliament is enacting strict control to prevent the public being paid money they are not entitled to, and giving municipalities an obligation to report it. And when it then comes to parliament itself, things are a lot less strict,” Pramming told DR.

Struer Municipality has ruled that Vanopslagh broke CPR (central person registration) rules by not living in Struer enough between 2020 and 2022 for it to be deemed his actual residence, as he claimed at the time.

Two left-wing parties, Red Green Alliance and Alternative, have called for the Præsidium – speaker’s council – in parliament to consider whether Vanopslagh should be prosecuted over the issue.

The speaker of parliament, Søren Gade, has told DR that the case will not be taken further. A previous case from 2015 has been cited as precedent for the decision.

A second lawyer, Michael Bjørn Hansen, called that stance “absurd” in comments to the broadcaster. Hansen also has expertise in benefit fraud cases.

“Based on some kind of objective consideration, this is certainly benefit fraud. Because he has cheated on some rules and received public benefits which he is not entitled to,” he said.

Equal status before the law “is not present here” unless parliament files a report with police, he argued.

“This is different to the demands parliament is making on municipalities,” he said.

The Præsidium is responsible for managing Denmark’s 179 lawmakers. Five members of parliament sit on the council, with the speaker being the senior member.

Vanopslagh has admitted to wrongdoing in the “double home” scandal and said his knowledge of the rules had been lacking.

“It’s my fault, I made a mistake. But other people make the judgement and say what I have to pay back,” he said earlier this week.

A number of legal experts previously told newspaper Dagbladet Information that the matter should be investigated by the police.

Vanopslagh received a total of around 75,000 kroner to which he was not entitled, according to DR.

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