'Tamilgate' revelations force Danish PM's resignation

A DECADE of Danish politics ended ignominiously last night with the resignation of the Prime Minister, Poul Schluter - forced from office by the revelation that he had lied to parliament. An official inquiry found he had covered up an illegal policy of delaying visas for relatives of Tamil refugees living in Denmark.

'I have heard the criticisms and it is still my opinion that I have not deprived the parliament of important information. But the judge (heading the inquiry) charactised my relationship with the parliament in such a way that it would not be right for me to continue as Prime Minister,' Mr Schluter said in a resignation speech that closed Denmark's biggest post-war political scandal.

His departure sows temporary confusion in the rest of Europe just two weeks after Denmark took over the European Community presidency from Britain. A prolonged period of uncertainty risks delaying Denmark's second referendum on the Maastricht treaty, though most political commentators doubted yesterday that the government crisis would influence the vote.

'Tamilgate', as the saga has been dubbed, has been nibbling at the Danish body politic since 1987, when parliament ordered a judicial inquiry into allegations that the justice minister had acted illegally. Under Danish law, the immediate family of legal immigrants are granted residency rights. The then justice minister, Erik Ninn-Hansen, was accused of deliberately holding up the paper work enabling relatives to join 5,000 Tamil refugees already in Denmark.

The core question was how much did Mr Schluter know about the affair? Was he deliberately withholding information when he proclaimed before parliament in April 1989 that 'nothing has been swept under the carpet'.

The answers were delivered in a report yesterday whose findings were so sensitive that the document had to be printed abroad. Public interest was such that a special mini-version was published for those unwilling to wade through the 6,000-page orginal.

Mr Schluter, said the judge, Mogens Hornslet, gave parliament and the parliamentary justice committee 'deliberately misleading information'. His 1989 speech was, moreover, 'directly untrue'.

There was surprise that the judge had laid the blame so squarely at Mr Schluter's door, though leading civil servants too were accused of failing in their moral duty to report their superiors' action. The Prime Minister had promised to step down if the report found against him; his difficult task now is to avoid taking his own Conservative Party or Liberal coalition partners with him.

Mr Schluter named the Finance Minister, Henning Dyremose, as his successor. This delivers a clear message to the opposition parties, not all of whom see eye to eye, that they will have to join together and force a vote of no confidence for there to be fresh elections. The Social Democrats, in exile for 10 years, are itching to taste power again but must win over the pivotal small centrist parties and, most crucially, the tiny Radical Liberals to form a viable coalition.

The date of the second referendum on the Maastricht treaty, tentatively scheduled for April or May, may be delayed. But with seven of the eight political parties now supporting a compromise agreed at the Edinburgh summit, a change of government would not imply a change of policy, nor unduly influence the view of voters, the majority of whom will now vote 'yes' to Maastricht, according to opinion polls.

(Photograph omitted)