How the President of the EU-Parliament tried to protect Chansellor Angela Merkel against Udo Voigt
It was a great show for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel today in Strasbourg. In a keynote address to the European Parliament, she defended practically all the questionable achievements of her chancellorship, from the ‘salvation’ of Greece over the mass immigration to the militarization of European foreign policy, which is largely supported by the Federal Republic. A great opportunity for the German NPD MEP Udo Voigt to confront Merkel’s policies of treason.
As a general rule in the EU-Parliament, if a head of state speaks, the MEPs from his or her country can reply. In Merkel’s case, Udo Voigt and the non-political professional clown Martin Sonneborn of the satirical party “The Party” belong to the non-political group. As was the case two years ago, the parliamentary administration decided – why? – again for the clown Sonneborn to have the speaking time, to save Merkel from critics from the German NPD MEP.
Even when in the ensuing debate the French member Bruno Gollnisch (Rassemblement National, formerly National Front) announced to the President that he did not want to speak and wanted to give his time to Udo Voigt, Parliament President Tajani fiercely refused. Gollnisch then at least denounced the persecution of national dissidents in Germany (such as currently Horst Mahler and Ursula Haverbeck).
Unsurprisingly, Tajani soon blocked the German NPD parliamentarian once more, in order to give him no opportunity to reply directly to the German chancellor. Also in the so-called “catch the eye” method, in which after the regular debate spontaneously more speakers can speak, Udo Voigt was totally ignored by Tajani.
The European Parliament gave a very bad impression today. Visitors to today’s debate were more likely to recall conditions such as those in the former DDR-‘Volkskammer’.
