Politicians clash over Section 20 question after TV row

Politicians are divided over whether a parliamentary question about Culture Minister Zenia Stampe’s conduct is an appropriate use of parliament’s time, DR reports. Liberal Alliance MP Katrine Daugaard has asked Stampe to respond to criticism from former badminton player Viktor Axelsen.

The dispute follows a heated discussion about artificial intelligence on Thursday’s edition of the TV programme Debatten. Stampe and entrepreneur Martin Thorborg argued about his use of AI in writing his new autobiography. Stampe said Thorborg had written only “one twentieth” of it himself and called him “not very clever” and “self-important”. Thorborg replied that the AI had been trained on his material.

Clips from the exchange have circulated on social media, drawing criticism of Stampe’s conduct. Axelsen called it “embarrassing” in a Facebook post. He wrote that her tone, body language and handling of the situation fell well short of what should be expected of a minister.

Daugaard, Liberal Alliance’s spokesperson on social and cultural affairs, has submitted a Section 20 question asking whether Axelsen’s criticism has made an impression on Stampe. Section 20 questions allow members of parliament to ask ministers about their views on public matters, either in writing or orally.

Daugaard said Axelsen was a former athlete speaking about an issue within Stampe’s responsibility as both culture and sports minister. She said she wanted to hear Stampe’s own view on Axelsen’s claim that her conduct did not reflect the values of sport.

Moderates’ political spokesperson Mohammad Rona accused Daugaard of “misusing parliament’s time”. He said answering such questions could put pressure on the civil service, and questioned the value of asking a minister to respond to a private individual’s social media post.

Daugaard called Rona’s criticism “completely ridiculous”, arguing that it was normal for MPs to ask ministers to address criticism concerning their areas of responsibility.

Axelsen declined to expand on his comments to DR. In his post, he said Stampe’s conduct and her lack of self-reflection afterwards did not represent the values he associated with Danish sport. Stampe has previously told DR that criticism of her performance gave a misleading impression, saying the exchange was no more heated than political debates during an election campaign.