IN THE DARK Nordic winter, the Danish prime minister took off for a weekend in sunny southern Spain – and raised political hackles not for being extravagant, but for being cheap.

Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his companion flew to Malaga on budget airline Ryanair.

“Disgusting!” said one opposition leftist lawmaker on his Facebook page, reacting to the news reported by the daily Ekstrabladet.

Flying for a budget fare sends a ‘very bad signal’, said social democrat Jeppe Bruus, quoted by the Ritzau news agency.

While politicians are usually criticised for spending too much, in Denmark what’s more important is where they spend it.

The low-cost Irish airline Ryanair is not a favourite of Danish leftists and union leaders who claim the company’s policies for employees are not in line with Denmark’s social benefits.

“Ryanair represents a direct threat to the Danish model,” said  Henrik Bay-Clausen, representative for the 3F union at Copenhagen airport.

The unions have locked horns with Ryanair for years over working conditions and their political clout cannot be underestimated.

In fact if you are a civil servant in Denmark’s four biggest cities — Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg — you are banned from flying Ryanair on any city business trip.

No comment yet from the centre-right Rasmussen on his frugal travel plans.

- © AFP, 2016

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