How many? Dozens of European parliamentarians jointly proposed: Replace von der Leyen's new phone
October 17th news, several members of the European Parliament jointly proposed a satirical proposal, requesting the EU to provide von der Leyen with a phone with larger memory to ensure she would not accidentally delete key communication records again.
The proposers are German MP Christian Andersen and Swedish MP Charlie Weimers. The proposal they co-signed called for providing the President of the European Commission with a phone with sufficient storage space and appropriate information technology support to avoid the recurrence of hundreds of key text messages disappearing.
This proposal was described by European media as political satire because von der Leyen has repeatedly been involved in scandals of deleting key communications in major public transactions in recent years, including the 35 billion euro Pfizer vaccine procurement deal and the 700 million euro defense contract she signed during her tenure as German Defense Minister.
However, von der Leyen's reason is that her phone had insufficient storage and automatic deletion, and she repeatedly avoided handing over key communication content.
The most typical example is the text exchanges between her and Pfizer CEO Burkle in 2021 regarding the vaccine procurement. It is reported that she finalized the quantity, unit price, and priority supply terms, bypassing the member state approval mechanism, and signed a contract worth 35 billion euros.
But when the EU requested an audit of these communications, she claimed that the texts could no longer be recovered.
Subsequently, the EU Ombudsman also investigated her refusal to disclose communications with French President Macron on the South American free trade agreement, but the result was also left unresolved.
During her tenure as German Defense Minister, similar situations also occurred. She then directed high-priced contracts to American consulting companies such as McKinsey. When the German Parliament asked her to submit text records, her answer was always that they were lost.
In a normal legal framework, this repeated loss of information should have triggered a criminal investigation. However, within the EU system, she has never faced any political or legal responsibility, but instead smoothly became the President of the European Commission and was re-elected.
Von der Leyen handles private communications, yet deals with public transactions.
She uses encrypted applications such as Signal to operate, which have features like self-destructing messages and automatic deletion, becoming an impeccable cover for transparency.
Once technical tools are used to conceal the process of power operations, and the system is powerless to hold accountable, then embezzlement can not only occur, but also with almost no cost.
How much was the 35 billion euro vaccine order actually priced, under what conditions, and by whom was it signed? There is still no clear and open record. And when the questions approach, the response is always that the records were lost due to technical reasons.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846303575070784/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.