“An impressive combination of copied passages that do not meet the requirements of the academy.”: this is how this wednesday the newspaper “reporter.lu” describes university dissertation of Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg accused of plagiarism.
In the course of an investigation carried out by the media of this country, it is concluded that of the 56 pages that make up the thesis, only two have original content…
The work is believed to contain long passages of text from two books, four websites, and an author’s article without proper citation of sources.
The investigation indicates that 20 pages were copied directly from the website of the European Parliament, and nine more were taken from the report of the Greek MEP presented in 1998.
“The plagiarism I found is very problematic because long passages have been translated almost into ipsis verbis.”– says Anna-Lena Hegenauer, professor of political science at the University of Luxembourg, quoted by “The Guardian”…
Xavier Bettel has already publicly admitted that academic work “it should have been done differently”although he says the dissertation was written over 20 years ago and ensures that it is written with a “clear conscience.”
The 48-year-old politician and prime minister of Luxembourg since 2013 says he “fully trusted” the scientific council of the University of Lorraine when the dissertation was judged against the standards at the time of writing.
However, Bettel guarantees that he will “naturally make” the decision, even if it results in the loss of his degree. The dissertation allowed the Prime Minister of Luxembourg to take a course in public law and political science.
