Excerpt:
The lawyer based her request on Article 245 (action incompatible with their duties) and Article 247 (serious misconduct) of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
The case concerned the disclosure of calls and text messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla through which both parties negotiated vaccine contracts during the COVID-19 crisis.
Following a criminal complaint filed by Frédéric Baldan, a Belgian lobbyist focusing on China-EU trade relations, the Belgian authorities initiated the case in early 2023. Subsequently, the governments of Hungary and Poland joined the lawsuit.
Von der Leyen kept “stubbornly refusing to disclose contracts for the purchase of COVID vaccines […and] the electronic messages she exchanged with Mr Bourla, CEO of Pfizer", according to the letter which said her actions offended “public morality” and “shatter the legitimate confidence that citizens should be able to have in all members of the European Commission”.
It baffles me how short lived the memory of people is. The whole affair around Gorch Fock should have made a persona non grata, especially after blatantly refusing any collaboration with the authorities (very convenient that all the incriminating chats were deleted and she can’t remember a thing anymore…). On the other hand, looking at the SPD and Scholz’ appearance for the Warburg Bank investigation was not any better.
And yet, the ultra right found the expression of “green filth” due to one minor case of irregularities of a few officials who got into office before the department it is associated with got a green secretary.
Btw, the Greens are the party with the fewest scandals of all parties that were ever in a german government (and at least one that (luckily) never was). And it ain’t even close.
Yep, and right they are. We’re dangerous terrorists and our opinion that we should change our way of living instead of destroying the planet before it’s too late is a very dangerous thought that terrorizes their simplistic minds.