The headline of a DR article reads: “Vanoopslagh’s new tax plan gives the director three times as much tax relief as the ordinary wage earner: ‘Will tear Denmark in two'”. This has brought several conservative members of the Danish Parliament to the boiling point. On the social media platform X, Conservative Rasmus Jarlov expresses his frustration and sees the article as part of an ongoing trend where DR ‘always takes a left-wing angle on the public debate’. Despite this claim, Jarlov cannot mention any specific examples. We will come back to that.
From the side of the Liberal Alliance party, the criticism is even sharper. Member of Parliament Lars-Christian Brask calls the headline ‘ridiculously biased and one-sided’. Accusations that DR flatly denies. The background to the DR article is calculations done by the think tank CEPOS on the consequences of the Liberal Alliance’s new tax plan. The plan includes, among other things, halving the top tax rate over four years. According to the calculations, a director’s family will receive twice as much tax relief as an ordinary wage earner.
Social Democracy’s political spokesperson, Christian Rabjerg Madsen, believes that with their tax plan, the Liberal Alliance party will ‘tear Denmark apart’. BT has asked Rasmus Jarlov why the DR article triggered such strong reactions from him. “It’s mainly because it happens so often. If DR took this angle just once, it would be okay, but it’s an angle that comes up every time a party proposes even the smallest tax cuts,” he says, adding: “I find it noticeable. I can’t remember seeing it portrayed negatively in the same way when a party proposes to raise taxes.”
On the other hand, the director’s family can be pleased that their tax money is being used for us to have a state-monopoly news media that always takes a left-wing angle on the public debate. When left-wing parties present economic plans that will increase…
Source: Rasmus Jarlov (@RasmusJarlov) May 18, 2024 You say that it is a general thing that DR treats proposals for tax cuts negatively. Can you point to examples of that? “I haven’t had time to make a count of it, so it’s just my feeling,” replies Jarlov. But you haven’t made a count. It’s just your feeling? Yes, it’s my feeling. I would be very surprised if it were wrong, but it’s just a feeling I have. I remember it very clearly from our own election campaign here a year and a half ago, where the negative spin on taxes was very…