After convening for four hours, the leading members of opposition party Venstre have decided to back its beleaguered party head Lars Løkke Rasmussen one last time after his latest shenanigans.
The meeting, which took place yesterday at the Hotel Crowne Plaza in Copenhagen, was arranged so that Rasmussen could explain why the party shelled out 152,000 kroner for various items of clothing and paid for a family holiday to Mallorca in Spain back in 2011.
“A unanimous party council backs him as head of Venstre,” Peter Gæmelke, a party council member said at a press conference after the meeting.
Rasmussen told state broadcaster DR that he considered resigning as head of the party because of this latest case, while a growing number of party members believe he perhaps should have, considering the party’s dwindling membership numbers.
READ MORE: Venstre paid 152,000 kroner for Lars Løkke's suits
Membership numbers falling
The party has reportedly been haemorrhaging members since Rasmussen’s latest scandal broke, and in some areas Venstre has stopped recruiting all together.
“Some things have been said and that costs memberships. That has become obvious,” Jens Nicolai Vejlgaard, a senior Venstre member in Ringkøbing, told Børsen newspaper. “There is no doubt that his case is not a winner for Venstre.”
Rasmussen is nearing the end of his political rope after a series of scandals over the past few years, the latest being the ‘Luxury Lars’ saga when it was revealed late last year that Rasmussen spent 770,000 kroner on first-class flights as the chairman of climate organisation GGGI, which is funded by Danish taxpayer funds.
