Preben Bang Henriksen, a long-serving Venstre member of the Folketing, said on Tuesday that he expects to be expelled from the party's parliamentary group because he refuses to follow the party line when he disagrees with it, Berlingske reported after the group meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
"It may point a bit in that direction, but I won't pre-empt the course of events," he said about a possible expulsion. "I have told the group that I will not deposit my vote with a majority in the group. For one thing, it is against the constitution, and for another, it would mean I would not know what to vote in the future. Under the constitution, members of the Folketing are bound solely by their own conviction.
A new "extraordinary meeting" was called for late Tuesday afternoon, with only one item on the agenda, the MP said. "I am at any rate a member for another hour or so," he told Ekstra Bladet on his way out of the meeting. The party leadership recently won backing to throw out members who go against the party.
Peter Juel-Jensen and Anni Matthiesen, who both voted against Venstre's line on the fertiliser law, said they would follow the majority from now on. "I intend to follow the majority. I back the idea that we get furthest when we agree in the parliamentary group," Juel-Jensen said.
"I stay in Venstre. I was born a Venstre woman, and I will keep being one," Matthiesen said.
Henriksen, known as a prominent legal spokesperson and an MP since 2011, voted against the fertiliser law in September, together with four other members. On Sunday, the party leadership secured backing from the main board