He is based on the results of a lawyer’s investigation into sexual offenses that Khader was accused of by five women before the summer. The study had found even more.
– The charges were serious. And with the new accusations, the seriousness is more than confirmed, said Søren Pape Poulsen and continued:
– We are neither police nor court. But we as an association can decide whether you can be a member of – and a representative of – our party. I do not believe that Naser Khader can be a member of the Conservatives.
Khader wrote on Facebook that he himself has opted out. But that possibility was really only open because, according to the statutes, it is the Conservatives’ main board that can exclude members. And it had not had time to meet.
Søren Pape Poulsen stood alone at the press conference, where he accepted questions on questions about why he has not reacted faster. Both on accusations from named women and the rumors that have abounded about Naser Khader for years.
– He will be criticized for not having acted before. But Naser Khader has denied everything, so I do not think that Pape could do anything but wait for the investigation, says political commentator at the Althing Erik Holstein.
While Søren Pape Poulsen stood alone in front of the press, he was far from alone with the decision.
– I recommended yesterday to our Executive Committee that Naser Khader be excluded. There was unanimous support for that, he said.
And on Wednesday morning, the parliamentary group voted unanimously one by one for the same.
The cohesion of the decision is something that Erik Holstein notes. For unity and cohesion were for a long period not adjectives attached to the Conservatives.
– Naser Khader has some really good friends in the group. But it is a party that stands united, even in a situation like this.
– Years ago, one could easily have imagined that it had triggered wing war, he says.
Especially in the 1990s, the party was devastated by internal strife, with the party having no less than five chairmen due to one more inflamed showdown after another.
– It was completely parodic. After all, we spent half of our time as Christiansborg journalists writing about the conservative civil wars.
– It was very entertaining, but completely destructive for the party, says Erik Holstein.
The fact that the party under Søren Pape Poulsen, who became chairman in 2014, no longer has itself as a hereditary enemy, contributes to the fact that it is better in the opinion polls than it has been since 1993.
And progress in itself breeds calm.
– Instead of constantly cutting off the head of the chairman and driving the next one into position, the party is now working together across the wings, because they see progress and the possibility of government positions, says Erik Holstein.
Source: The Nordic Page