Over seven days, the Court in Lyngby will rule on whether the Danish People’s Party’s deputy chairman, Morten Messerschmidt, is guilty of EU fraud and forgery.
It is the culmination of a six-year-old case of misuse of EU funds that erupted in 2015.
Get an overview of the case here:
* 2012: Meld og Feld is created. Meld is the name of a political alliance of EU-skeptical parties and Feld is its associated fund to support the alliance with EU funds.
* 2014: The newly elected members of the European Parliament for the Danish People’s Party Rikke Karlsson and Jørn Dohrmann are registered as board members in Meld og Feld.
* 2015:
October 13: Rikke Karlsson announces that she is resigning from the Danish People’s Party because she can not get the accounts for Meld og Feld handed out by Morten Messerschmidt, who is chairman here.
She also writes that she has been asked to sign that she has attended meetings she has not attended.
She further writes that she has been enrolled as a board member without her knowledge.
On the same day, Morten Messerschmidt calls Rikke Karlsson a “slightly confused girl”.
The EU’s anti-fraud unit, Olaf, goes into the matter and begins to investigate Meld og Feld’s activities.
In October, the DF agrees to pay the first money back to the EU. DKK 120,700 has been spent on renting a schooner, which the party leadership has used to sail around and campaign from in 2013.
At the end of the year, Meld og Feld will be closed.
* 2016:
On 9 May, the EU decides that the Danish People’s Party must repay DKK 2.9 million that has been spent on things that the EU-funded fund is not allowed to spend money on.
These include campaigns for DF that have nothing to do with the EU, summer group meetings and a golden handshake of over a million kroner.
Shortly afterwards, DF agrees to pay 1.6 million kroner back.
In August, the Danish People’s Party says that it must be cleaned up.
At the same time, Rikke Karlsson reports Morten Messerschmidt for identity theft, as she believes she has been registered with the board in Feld without her knowledge, and that her signature has been forged on documents.
Morten Messerschmidt subsequently resigns as chairman of the DF’s group in the European Parliament.
On October 17, Olaf interrogates the first persons from the case. The next day, Morten Messerschmidt is removed from the DF’s powerful coordination committee.
On 21 October, the Danish People’s Party will present its own statement and say that it will pay back all support that has come from Feld.
The list of things the party has received EU money for is long. It includes dinners, domestic political campaigns, a bus trip, advertising on social media, Christmas cards, Morten Messerschmidt’s own book on freezing with EU funds and “EU activities in connection with the Folketing group’s summer group meeting in Skagen” in 2015.
On 22 October, Morten Messerschmidt becomes ill and is on sick leave indefinitely.
2017:
In June, Morten Messerschmidt returns after his stress illness report, which he himself links to the many cases of accusations of fraud with EU funds.
Olaf is still investigating the case.
2019:
The Danish People’s Party declines sharply in elections to both the European Parliament and parliamentary elections. Party founder Pia Kjærsgaard partly blames Olaf’s investigation, which has not yet been completed.
– It’s been over three years since it started. We sit with r-ø-friend on the hob. It is quite unreasonable that such a thing is not decided, to keep us that way, she says.
Morten Messerschmidt is elected to the Folketing.
On 16 October, Olaf concludes his investigation and hands over the case to Søik, the Bagmandspolitiet.
In December, new, burdensome information will emerge. Ekstra Bladet can show a contract at a conference at Color Hotel Skagen, which has been submitted to the EU as proof that an EU conference was held together with DF’s summer group meeting in 2015.
For the hotel, DF’s head of secretariat, Jeanie Nørhave, has signed. At the same time, several media are questioning whether there has been EU content at the summer group meeting.
2020:
In August, Morten Messerschmidt will be appointed deputy chairman of the Danish People’s Party.
2021:
In May, Morten Messerschmidt is officially charged with fraud with EU funds and forgery by the behind-the-scenes police.
The indictment is focused on the 98,176 EU kroner that must have been spent on an EU conference at the same time as the summer group meeting. An EU conference that the prosecution does not believe took place.
Prosecution has also been filed for forgery, as the prosecution believes that Morten Messerschmidt and his former personal assistant have “caused” Jeanie Nørhave to sign a false contract.
Sources: Ritzau, Berlingske, DR, TV2, Ekstra Bladet.
Source: The Nordic Page