Reporter.lu claims that 96% of the pages of Xavier Bettel’s thesis for his diploma at the University of Nancy contain plagiarised paragraphs. Photo: Romain Gamba / Maison Moderne

Reporter.lu claims that 96% of the pages of Xavier Bettel’s thesis for his diploma at the University of Nancy contain plagiarised paragraphs. Photo: Romain Gamba / Maison Moderne

The investigative media outlet Reporter.lu has accused the prime minister of having largely plagiarised his thesis in the last year of his studies at the University of Nancy.

The accusation is serious. According to the investigation of Reporter.lu, the prime minister made extensive use of “copy/paste” in his thesis, back in 1999, in order to complete his doctoral degree at the University of Nancy.

The Luxembourg media outlet goes even further by claiming that 96% of this work contains plagiarised paragraphs with Xavier Bettel not citing his sources.

According to Reporter.lu, the document, which focuses on possible reforms of the voting system for European Parliament elections, has been analysed at length by independent researchers, confirming “an acute suspicion of plagiarism”.

“More than 20 years ago, I wrote my dissertation as part of a postgraduate degree, which was evaluated and recognised by the University of Nancy-II. As I recall, I wrote this work with a clear conscience at that time. From today’s point of view, I recognise that it could--yes, perhaps it should--have been done differently. I have full confidence in the University of Nancy to assess whether the work in question meets the criteria of the time. If this is not the case, I naturally accept a corresponding decision in this sense,” said Xavier Bettel in the wake of the publication of the Reporter.lu article.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.