His plagiarism affair does not let go of the Luxembourg Prime Minister.
The lawyer Xavier Bettel had copied 96 percent of the text for his thesis in Nancy, France, without citing sources.
The university checks the behavior.
"If I am partly responsible for the fact that the credibility of politics has suffered, then I am sorry," said Bettel to the press.
An apology didn’t come out of his mouth.
Contrary to expectations, the plagiarism is a major concern of the Grand Duchy.
They are also reflected in a political poll.
In the latest Politmonitor, in which competence and sympathy are queried, Bettel lost both criteria significantly.
He still holds third place on the list.
"I did not try to fuddle or trick," said the liberal politician.
Such allegations would "hurt" him.
Plagiarism was "widespread" in Nancy
However, the allegations are justified - the Reporter.lu magazine had proven the trickery and had it confirmed by independent experts.
Bettel refers to his own professor from back then, who does not want to recognize any wrongdoing.
That in turn does not seem incomprehensible;
after all, it would also be a misconduct on the part of the supervisor himself.
"It was not a brilliant job," admitted Bettel: "I have compiled a number of points from left and right." That alone is not reprehensible, however. It is reprehensible, however, not to communicate that and where the points were gathered from. Meanwhile, the Luxembourg newspaper Tageblatt reported that plagiarism was widespread in Bettel's atmosphere at the time. A previous student reported that out of 25 students, 20 plagiarized. “We helped each other. Plagiarism was very common. "
Four percent of Bettel's work is not plagiarized.
You could see that quickly.
In this part there are “pretty gross spelling mistakes”, as an expert on Luxembourg radio pointed out.
The plagiarized passages, on the other hand, were, hardly surprisingly, free of spelling errors.
Bettel's friends now speak of a "presumption of innocence" that applies until the university has completed its examination.
But that is wrong.
The presumption of innocence only exists in criminal law, not in science.
This category confusion also helps Bettel sit out the topic.
When the Tageblatt recently asked students from the University of Luxembourg about the behavior of their Prime Minister, it received the following reaction, among other things: "You feel a little ripped off."