Morten Messerschmidt, an MEP for Dansk Folkeparti, has been asked by the EU Parliament to pay back a large sum of money that was used illegally by his party on political campaigns in Denmark.

Though these circumstances are not unheard of in themselves, the EU Parliament has called the amount of money to be paid back in this case – 2.9 million kroner, to be exact – “unusual”, reports BT.

“Although there have been other cases where a political party or foundation has had to repay some of the funds they received, the amount in this case is rather unusual,” deputy spokesperson Marjory van den Broeke wrote in an email to Ritzau.

Unfair
However, Messerschmidt maintains that the measures are unfair as the funds were used to campaign for causes specific to Denmark’s relationship with the EU.

“It is a paradox that other parties use resources [for similar campaigns] to do what we were told not to do,” he said on Monday.

According to DF party leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl, the party is only willing to pay back 1.6 million of the sum.