Liberal leader Løkke got paid vacation, smoking clean-up expenses

Tabloid daily Ekstra Bladet has revealed that the Liberal party funded a vacation to Majorca for Mr Rasmussen and his family and also paid for extra cleaning at a hotel after the ex-PM, against the rules, smoked in a non-smoking room during a campaign trip in 2011. This is according to Seven59.dk and Politiken.dk.

According to Ekstra Bladet, the Liberals’ National Committee paid DKK 11,000 for flight tickets to Palma, Majorca for the Rasmussen family ten days after he stepped down as prime minister in 2011, while the hotel bill for extra cleaning of curtains, carpets, and bed linen cost the party DKK 2,000. The latest revelations come after the Liberal leader admitted last week to buying DKK 152,000 of clothing with party funds.

Mr Løkke Rasmussen’s faithful ally, ex-finance minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, again came to his boss’s defence by claiming that it’s ‘reasonable’ for the party to cover the cost for extra cleaning as a prime minister ‘can’t be expected to leave the hotel and stand in a doorway every time he wants to smoke’ but failed to answer why the party didn’t just book a smoking room.

Could be more to come

With Liberal members starting to question to whether Mr Rasmussen is the right man to lead them into the next election, TV2 News warned that he could be hit with more expense account controversy this week.

See article in Danish newspaper here:

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