Luxembourg PM Admits to Plagiarizing Dissertation

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was accused of plagiarizing the majority of his masters dissertation. (Wikimedia Commons)

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel plagiarized extensive parts of a dissertation he wrote as a student at the University of Nancy-II (now the University of Lorraine), the Luxembourg news website Reporter.lu uncovered on October 27. Reporter.lu found that only two of the 56 pages contained no plagiarized material.

 Bettel, who has been Luxembourg’s prime minister since 2013, wrote the thesis, “Toward a Possible Reform of Voting Systems in the European Parliament,” more than 20 years ago as part of a master’s-level research degree. He is the latest in a string of high profile European politicians involved in plagiarism scandals in recent years. In May, German Family Minister Franziska Giffey resigned following Ph.D. plagiarism allegations, while Education Minister Annette Schavan left office in 2013 and Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned in 2011. 

Bettel is the first prominent Luxembourg politician to be accused of plagiarism. Following the Reporter.lu report, Bettel said that he wrote his dissertation “to the best of my knowledge and belief at the time” but conceded that it “could have—yes, maybe should have—been done differently.”

However, according to Reporter.lu, “Bettel did not make too much effort to avoid the appearance of plagiarism.” He used passages from two books, four websites, and a newspaper article while failing to cite any of these sources. In particular, Reporter.lu found that twenty pages were copied directly from the European Parliament website despite a clear copyright warning. Only “a few paragraphs in the introduction and an equally short conclusion” did not contain any plagiarism.

 Reporter.lu journalist Pol Reutor noted that “a simple Google search was enough to identify the majority of the plagiarized passages.” But Bettel’s research director at the time of his dissertation suggested that standards were different at that time. According to him, students were not taught as much about proper academic habits, and fewer tools for detecting plagiarism existed.

Bettel, for his part, said he would let the University of Lorraine determine whether the dissertation met the academic criteria when it was written. The university opened an investigation into Bettel’s allegations of plagiarism following the Reporter.lu article. In a press release, the university said that at the time, it was “not equipped with the current anti-plagiarism software” but noted that “the possible sanctions that the institution may have to take will depend on the conclusions of the investigation.” Bettel said that he would accept the university’s conclusion whether or not his degree is withdrawn.