COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s new center-right government, led by Venstre party leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen, has lost its major coalition partner, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DPP), after a disagreement over tax cuts planned for high-income earners.
Rasmussen’s government program includes a reduction of five percent in the current 15 percent surtax on the highest taxable incomes over DKK459,200 (USD68,900) a year. The DPP was not able to accept that measure.
While the original center-right coalition defeated the outgoing Social Democrat government in the election, Venstre is now left alone in government with only 34 members in the 179-seat Parliament. Its ability to carry through its policies, including the tax cut, is therefore said to be open to doubt without a good deal of compromise with other parties.
