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Danish politics rocked by massive #MeToo drama

Morten Østergaard has resigned as head of Radikale party after admitting he inappropriately touched a colleague some ten years ago

The #MeToo movement has claimed its biggest name in Danish politics yet. 

Morten Østergaard resigned as head of Radikale party this evening after admitting he groped his party colleague Lotte Rod some ten years ago.

In mid-September, Rod came forward and revealed that she had experienced being inappropriately touched by party colleagues in the past. 

She didn’t name anyone, but said she had passed on a name to the party head, which was Østergaard. 

When asked about the issue yesterday, Østergaard said that he had given the person in question a verbal warning, the case was closed and the individual should not be denied a potential ministerial post in the future because of their actions. 

Now it turns out that it was he himself who had touched Rod inappropriately.

“I’ve let down my group and thus my party and the public because I have tried to avoid admitting it [touching Rod inappropriately] to people other than Lotte. I can therefore no longer legitimately continue as the political leader of Radikale,” Østergaard wrote on Facebook.

READ ALSO: Danish foreign minister apologises for sleeping with 15-year-old girl in 2008

A vocal hypocrite
What is even more interesting is that Østergaard was recently very outspoken about the affair involving foreign minister Jeppe Kofod sleeping with a 15-year-old some 12 years ago.

Responding to the Kofod incident earlier this week, Østergaard maintained that Kofod’s actions back then should never have warranted a ministerial position.

Østergaard, who has been replaced by Sofie Carsten Nielsen as head of Radikale following a seven-hour crisis meeting this evening, said he would continue in politics despite his resignation as party head.

The news comes in the wake of hundreds of current and former female politicians signing a letter that they have been a victim of, or a witness to, sexism in Danish politics.

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