The chaos in the centre-right party Venstre has taken a new turn on Tuesday evening.
A long-standing member of the Folketing for Venstre, Preben Bang Henriksen, was, after a vote in the parliamentary group, excluded from the party.
He has confirmed that he will hold on to his seat and that he is not currently looking to join another party. This means he will now sit as an independent.
Fertiliser bill disagreements
The conflict between Bang Henriksen and the rest of the parliamentary group began in September when he, alongside four other members of Venstre, voted against the party line.
This revolved around the fertiliser bill that will put caps on nitrate emissions on farmers, and which was widely criticised by the agricultural sector, yet celebrated by environmental groups.
Bang Henriksen and the other rebels voted against the bill, despite Venstre under its leader Troels Lund Poulsen supporting it as part of the party’s shift to a more environmentally friendly policy profile.
One of the other rebels, Søren Gade, has since resigned from the Folketing and left politics altogether.
Executive meeting in Nyborg
On Sunday, Lund Poulsen and deputy leader Stephanie Lose met with the party’s executive committee in Nyborg.
Here, the leaders received unanimous support, which they said in a press conference subsequently would mean that they had support for a new policy approach and for excluding members working against the party line.
Questions have since been raised about whether the leaders exaggerated the support they received from the executive.
TV Midtvest could report on several members of the executive who do not agree with the notion of the leadership being able to exclude members.
Group meeting on Tuesday
On Tuesday afternoon, Venstre’s parliamentary group held a meeting where three out of four of the remaining rebels agreed to vote in line with the rest of the party.
However, Bang Henriksen did not rule out voting against the party line, citing the constitution’s paragraph 56, which says members of the Folketing are bound exclusively by their own conviction.
Following the meeting, Venstre’s leadership called an extraordinary group meeting that evening. Ahead of the meeting, Bang Henriksen told the press that he was convinced the meeting had been called to exclude him.
Exclusion of Bang Henriksen
Bang Henriksen was correct in his theory. At the meeting, the parliamentary group held a secret ballot vote on whether or not to exclude him.
The exact result remains unknown; however, the result was that Bang Henriksen would be removed from the parliamentary group, and thereby excluded from Venstre altogether.
After the meeting, Bang Henriksen said to DR, “I’m saddened. I’ve been involved for many years, and I’ve never voted against the party line before this fertiliser law.”
He goes on to say that “It’s unsatisfactory, but I have no doubt that it was a clear majority against me.”
He confirmed that he was not currently looking to join another party, but would retain his seat in the Folketing, meaning he will now sit as an independent.
This brings Venstre’s parliamentary group down to 17 seats and means there are currently five independents: three that were excluded or left the Citizens’ Party (Borgernes Parti) and one who was excluded from Liberal Alliance.
The leadership speaks out
Following the exclusion, Lund Poulsen, Lose, and the party’s group leader Morten Dahlin spoke at a press conference.
Here, Lund Poulsen said that “We have had a discussion about whether one will respect a majority in the parliamentary group. 17 out of 18 replied that they would do so, and so Preben Bang Henriksen had to face the consequences of being the only one left.”
Dahlin also refused to comment on how many members of the group had voted in favour of excluding Bang Henriksen.
