PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen has stirred up a hornet’s nest by choosing to fly to Malaga with Ryanair last Sunday.
Several members of the union 3F spotted Rasmussen and his wife departing for sunny Spain via the discount Irish carrier.
Ryanair and several Danish unions have long been at loggerheads over what the unions see as the company’s refusal to work under what they call “the Danish model”.
“I think it’s bullshit that our prime minister is flying on an airline like Ryanair that constitutes a direct threat to the Danish model while he sits at the table at the three-party talks and negotiates with union members,” Henrik Bay-Clausen, a representative for 3F at Copenhagen Airport, told Ekstra Bladet.
Good fit
Jeppe Bruus, a social dumping spokesperson for Socialdemokraterne, told TV2 that Rasmussen flying with Ryanair “sends a crazy bad signal to workers” given how much “it exploits them”.
Public employees in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg are forbidden from flying with Ryanair on business trips.
Rasmussen responded in writing to questions from Parliament about why he chose Ryanair.
“The departure worked best with my official duties,” wrote the PM.
He also stressed that he paid for the journey himself.
