‘The Copy-And-Paste PM’: Luxembourg Leader Accused of Plagiarising Thesis

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel admitted on Wednesday that his graduate work “should have been done differently,” after an investigation found that only two pages of his 56-page dissertation were free of plagiarised material.

Luxembourg news site Reporter, with input from several independent researchers, analysed Bettel’s 1999 dissertation written for his Advanced Studies Diploma while he was a law and political science student at France’s University of Nancy-II.

The report, headlined “The copy-and-paste premier,” found wide-ranging plagiarism that it described as “unparalleled in its scope” throughout the dissertation, "Towards a possible reform of the voting procedures in European Parliament elections?"

In a statement on Wednesday, a red-faced Bettel acknowledged his dissertation fell short of contemporary academic standards.

“As I recall, I did this to the best of my knowledge and belief at the time,” he said. “From today's point of view, I recognise that it could have – yes, maybe should have – been done differently.”

University plagiarism scandals have ended a number of European ministerial careers, including Germany’s defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg in 2011, and family affairs minister Franziska Giffey in May.

But those cases involved doctorates, and the plagiarism headlines for Bettel, while an embarrassment, are not expected to pose a threat to his political career. Bettel, who has led the wealthy European country of about 630,000 people since 2013, said he would accept the university’s decision if a review found the work did not meet their standards.

“I have full confidence in the university to evaluate whether the work in question meets the criteria of the time,” he said. “Naturally, I would accept a corresponding decision to that effect, should it not.”