Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has admitted his university thesis “should have been done differently” after a media investigation concluded that only two of the work’s 56 pages had not been plagiarised.
A local news outlet, reporter.lu, said on Wednesday that Bettel had lifted three-quarters of the text, describing it as “an impressive hodgepodge of copied passages that does not meet the customary requirements of academia”.
Bettel, 48, who has been prime minister since 2013, said the thesis was more than 20 years old and written with a clear conscience. But “from today’s standpoint, it could have – yes, maybe should have – been done differently”, he said.
Bettel said he had full confidence in the University of Lorraine in eastern France to assess whether the work met its standards at the time, and that he would “naturally accept” its decision, even if it meant his qualification was withdrawn.
The thesis was written as part of an advanced diploma – roughly the equivalent of a master’s degree – in public law and political science that Bettel completed at what was then known as the University of Nancy in the same year he entered parliament.
Reporter.lu said the theis, called Toward a Possible Reform of Voting Systems in the European Parliament, contained lengthy passages of text that had been lifted unattributed from two books, four websites and a press article.
Photo – Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. EPA-EFE/FRANCISCO SECO / POOL
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