POLITICAL NOSES

One of the curiosities of Danish politics is the concept of "næser" (literally "noses"). This is perhaps best translated into English as a "ticking-off". A Minister does something wrong, but it is not so serious that it warrants a resignation (which in turn might, because of the complications of coalitions, cause the whole Government to fall). So they get a næse instead, a formal warning from Parliament that what they did was not up to scratch.

The Minister getting a næse this week was none other than the Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. And the reason was a matter, which shows no sign of going away, and every sign of getting bigger and bigger, namely the proposed visit to Christiania in the spring of 2012. This has already caused the resignation of both the head of the country's intelligence service and the Justice Minister; and since I last blogged on this in December, the top civil servant in the Justice Ministry has been sent on gardening leave, pending a formal disciplinary hearing which may cost her her job.

The latest developments concern the writing of the press release which the Justice Minister issued the night before he had to meet Parliament's Justice Committee to explain what had happened. It was in this press release that he first admitted to concocting the cock-and-bull story that eventually cost him his job. In the way of these things, the press release was sent round in draft by the Justice Ministry to those other Ministries that had an interest in the case; in this instance, the most important of those was the Prime Minister's office, whose permanent secretary suggested various changes. He also apparently informed the Prime Minister of what the press release would say.

When this emerged this week, the Prime Minister was hauled into Parliament for a 4.5 hour meeting with the Justice Committee. Nobody is suggesting - in contrast to what happened with the Justice Minister - that she misled Parliament. The criticism is that in knowing that the press release would say that the Justice Minister had misled Parliament, she should have stepped in and made him resign immediately, rather than waiting for the Justice Committee to do that itself. In other words, her næse is for poor management and leadership of the Government.

Since they don't cost you your job, næser can be shrugged off by tough Ministers. The problem for the Prime Minister is that this one reinforces an impression of weak leadership that was already there. She has protested that she has done nothing wrong, and that the næse is not warranted; but she would say that, wouldn't she. Meanwhile, the opposition is rubbing its hands with glee, as the Government looks more and more doomed.

Walter Blotscher