Frevert kicked out of party's forefront
The Danish People's Party's mayoral candidate in Copenhagen loses her spokesman post on educational affairs in parliament after a series of scandals
Scandals involving racist remarks and old pornographic pictures have cost Louise Frevert, the Danish People's Party's mayoral candidate, her leaders' favour and a spokesman post on educational affairs in parliament.
National broadcaster DR reported that the party's leadership had decided to hold Frevert responsible for her campaign website, where a number of racist comments on Muslims were discovered in September. Frevert blamed her website editor for the comments, excusing herself as having been too busy to personally control the website's contents.
After the scandal, Frevert continued her mayoral campaign but took time off from parliament.
The Danish People's Party suffered a humiliating defeat in the capital election, losing a fourth of its support since 2001.
The party was further aggrieved when unknown saboteurs replaced Frevert's campaign posters with explicit photographs from her past as pornographic actress in the 1970s one day before the elections.
When she returned to parliament after the elections, the party leadership announced their decision to remove Frevert from her post as spokesman for educational affairs.
Kristian Thulesen Dahl, parliamentary group leader, said the decision was not new.
'There has been a clear understanding between Louise Frevert and the party's leadership since the parliamentary elections in February that she would not continue with three spokesman posts after the municipal elections,' Dahl said.
He added, however, that Frevert was to blame for the party's dismal results in Copenhagen.
'Her campaign came to be about her person and not the Danish People's Party's policies,' he said.
Frevert originally lashed out against her superiors, saying they had given her no support throughout her difficulties during the campaign.
On Tuesday, however, she struck a meeker tone.
'I'm sorry that the contents of my website, which I neither wrote nor controlled, as well as the situation in my private life 30 years ago ended up overshadowing completely the Danish People's Party's political message,' Frevert said.