BRUSSELS — A European lawmaker who led a failed no-confidence vote in opposition to Ursula von der Leyen is suing her for defamation as a result of he says she implied he was taking orders from Russia.
Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea, of the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), stated the European Fee president selected to “personally assault” him in her remarks through the no-confidence debate.
Piperea is searching for an official public apology for the Fee president’s feedback, which he stated included the declare that its signatories had been “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s mates,” “extremists,” and propagators of “conspiracy theories.” A “vital quantity” of these signatories have joined the lawsuit, the MEP stated.
The case was filed on the EU Court docket of Justice, which has but to rule on whether or not it’s admissible. Whereas defamation instances are normally dealt with by nationwide courts — because the CJEU solely guidelines on EU regulation — Piperea is utilizing an article of the treaty founding the EU as authorized foundation. The article states the EU must “make good any injury brought on by its establishments or by its servants within the efficiency of their duties.”
The Fee declined to remark.
‘Puppets of Putin’
In July’s no-confidence debate in Strasbourg, von der Leyen stated Piperea’s arguments had been taken “proper from the oldest playbook of extremists.”
“We see the alarming menace from extremist events who need to polarize our societies with disinformation,” the Fee president stated, including there may be “ample proof that many are supported by our enemies and by their puppet masters in Russia or elsewhere.”
Manfred Weber, president of von der Leyen’s center-right European Individuals’s Get together, described the signatories to the movement as “puppets of Putin,” including that “Putin will like what his mates are doing right here.” The chair of the Socialists and Democrats, Iratxe García, additionally referred to Piperea and the signatories of the movement as allies of Putin.
Piperea filed the movement of no confidence, which compelled a debate and vote in opposition to von der Leyen, in mid-July after gathering sufficient signatures in opposition to her secret texts from 2021 with Albert Bourla, the chief govt of pharmaceutical large Pfizer.
Throughout the no-confidence debate in July, Piperea accused the “non-democratic” Fee of constructing the EU’s decision-making course of “opaque and discretionary” and thereby elevating “fears of abuse and corruption.”