The microphone miss: "How many idiots are left?"

EU-parlamentet

The microphone miss in Strasbourg: "How many idiots are left?" 

 

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Fanny Westling 

  

Published: Less than 2 hours ago  

 

NEWS  

 

STRASBOURG. Hungarian EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi left the microphone on in the Plenum in Strasbourg. 

 

"How many idiots are there left?" he muttered to a colleague.  

 

Now EU parliamentarians are demanding that Ursula von der Leyen fire him. 

 

Despite it being Valentine's Day, there was a lack of love in the  European Parliment.   

 

When Hungary's EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi left the podium, he seemed to be tired of the parliamentarians who asked him questions.  

 

The problem? He left the mic on. 

 

"How many more idiots are there left," he asked a colleague - and seemed to be referring to those who would ask him questions.  

 

The words were not meant for an audience. The centrist EU parliamentarian Abir Al-Sahlani reacted strongly to his statement. 

 

- That really shows disrespect towards our institution, an institution directly elected by the people. It shows the Hungarian government's approach to democracy, she says. 

 

Now several MEPs are demanding that Ursula von der Leyen act or distance herself from the incident. The German Daniel Freund who is in the Green group in the European Parliament goes even further. 

 

- He should resign, he tells Politico.  

 

Today, Várhelyi issued an apology - but also claimed that he had been misunderstood.  

 

"This was connected to a private and ongoing conversation in Hungarian between me and my chief of staff about a completely different matter, which was taken out of context." 

 

EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi. Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP  

 

Activists hung themselves from balconies 

 

It is not the only drama that occurred in Strasbourg during this week's Plenum.  

 

When the vote was to take place at 12:00, a group of activists stood on the podium and started shouting. They want Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK's founder. 

 

When guards tried to pull their flags from their hands, they grabbed arm hooks, and then some climbed over the railing.  

 

The moderate MEP Tobias Tobé was on his way to the podium. 

 

- You were worried that they could fall down, and then it would have been a very long fall. It felt like a high risk that they could have fallen.