Another near-miss for budget
Liberal backbenchers continue to threaten 2010 budget The government’s budget deal is back on track after yet another threat from a Liberal backbencher. Yesterday, Berlingske Tidende newspaper reported that Liberal MP Marion Petersen couldn’t vote for the new tightened rules...
The government’s budget deal is back on track after yet another threat from a Liberal backbencher.
Yesterday, Berlingske Tidende newspaper reported that Liberal MP Marion Petersen couldn’t vote for the new tightened rules that specify when a car should be scrapped rather than repaired.
It is the third time in just over a week that an MP from the prime minister’s party threatened to withdraw support for the government’s 2010 budget. With only the absolute minimum 90 MPs supporting the bill, the loss of even one MP will spoil its passage.
Petersen, who owns a car repair shop in the Copenhagen, refused to vote for an amendment to the scrap law, which involves a reduced limit of how much it should cost to repair a car before it can be classified as not worth repairing. Currently, the amount is 75 percent of the car’s value, but the proposal would lower that to 65 percent.
The amendment is thought lead to an additional 4,000 cars being scrapped each year, which would earn the state an extra 120 million kroner in registration fees if replacement cars were purchased for all of them.
“That would lead to lots of job losses for garage staff and I can’t vote for that,” Petersen said yesterday.
However, Liberal parliamentary group leader Kristian Jensen last night announced that after speaking with Petersen, she had changed her mind and was now fully behind the budget.
Last week, two other Liberal MPs, Eyvind Vesselbo and Britta Schall Holberg, caused a stir in the budget dealings when they aired reservations proposed changes to immigration legislation contained in the budget.