Juncker tax files cause ‘shock’

Luxembourg’s government was taken by “complete surprise” by the amount of files revealed last week in a report detailing hundreds of secret corporate deals that allegedly helped multinationals dodge taxes during Jean-Claude Juncker’s tenure as prime minister.

The publication of a “tsunami” of more than 500 so-called tax rulings executed by the government between 2002 and 2010 “totally astonished” Luxembourg finance minister Pierre Gramegna, he told journalists at a briefing yesterday in Luxembourg.

“This was an attack on our country like it has never seen before”, Gramegna said at the briefing with Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel. “Not for one second did I know documents would be leaked and that as a government we would have to answer for what happened in the past.”