After a lost vote of no confidence in Climate Minister Lars Aagaard (M), the Alternative and the Unity List will continue to keep alive the matter of delayed electricity grids, which the minister kept secret from the opposition parties. Therefore, the two parties are now calling for a new consultation. This time, it is Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen (S) who will be questioned.
- Lack of trust is the worst lack you can have. Trust glues everything together in politics, says Torsten Gejl, climate spokesman for the Alternative.
The Finance Minister sits on the government's green committee with other top ministers such as Troels Lund Poulsen (V) and Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M). Here, the government's leaders were informed about delays in the electricity grid, even though the parties in the Folketing were not. The Alternative and the Unity List will have dug into that.
- He must answer what he knew. And why they didn't tell the Danish Parliament about their knowledge, says Torsten Gejl, climate spokesman for the Alternative.
Lars Aagaard has been in a tizzy lately after the media outlet Zetland revealed that the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities had withheld a press release from Energinet that would have reported on delays in the electricity grid. While the spokespeople from the Danish Parliament's parties were not privy to the issue, the matter circulated upwards in the government to the Green Committee.
Torsten Gejl believes that Finance Minister Wammen should have instructed the Minister of Climate to inform the Danish Parliament as soon as the matter came before the committee.
- You sit and wonder if they are hiding something. What do they have up their sleeve, says Torsten Gejl.
The opposition has tried hard to gather a majority to overthrow Lars Aagaard. It has not succeeded. On Thursday, he survived a vote in the Folketingshallen, which cemented a majority behind him.
Has your work in the opposition been about teasing the government?
- No, it's about trust. About the fact that we have difficulty negotiating incredibly important climate issues with a minister we don't trust, says Torsten Gejl.
Can there be a risk that your continued engagement with more consultations could now stand in the way of concrete climate policy?
- Nicolai Wammen is not the Minister for Climate. So this is relevant. The Folketing is the government's watchdog. And what is happening at the moment is that power is being centralized in the ministries.
jel /ritzau/
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