In my article, I suggested if the EU wants to reform, it could start by
getting rid of Jean-Claude Juncker.
After doing so, I scanned Tweets of those I follow.
The German chancellor’s frustration with the European Commission chief
came as Europe split over whether to use the Brexit negotiations as a trigger
to deepen European integration or take a more pragmatic approach to Britain as
it heads for the exit door.
“The pressure on him [Juncker] to resign will only become greater and
Chancellor Merkel will eventually have to deal with this next year,” an
unnamed German minister told The Sunday Times, adding that Berlin had been furious
with Mr Juncker “gloating” over the UK referendum result.
Mr Juncker’s constant and unabashed calls for “more Europe”, has led to
several of Europe other dissenting members – including Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic – to lay some of the blame for Brexit at his door.
Even before he was appointed President of the European Commission –
against the wishes of David Cameron – concerns were raised about Mr Juncker’s
alchohol consumption which were dismissed as a “smear campaign” by his
officials.
At the time The Telegraph and several other newspapers reported officials
worrying about Mr Juncker having “cognac for breakfast” and rolling through
long negotiations fortified with large quantities of claret and brandy.
A week before the UK referendum vote a video emerged of an
apparently-drunk Mr Juncker taken at a May 2015 EU summit welcoming Viktor
Orban, the hardline Hungarian prime minister, as “the dictator” before giving
him a playful slap on the cheek.
Since the June 23 vote both the Czech and Polish foreign ministers have
called publicly for Mr Juncker to resign – moves that one senior EU official
dismissed last week as “predictable”. However, the rumblings from Berlin now
represent a much more serious threat to Mr Juncker’s tenure.
The split also offers a glimmer of hope for British negotiators who are
preparing for fractious EU-UK divorce talks and are desperate to avoid a
repeat of February’s failed negotiations which – controlled as they were by
Mr Juncker and the Commission – left David Cameron without enough ‘wins’ to
avoid Brexit.
Mrs Merkel’s anger reflects a growing schism in Europe between those, like
Mr Juncker and the French and Belgian leaders, who want to see “more Europe”
after Brexit, and those, like Mrs Merkel and her powerful finance minister
Wolfgang Schäuble who believe that would be “crazy”.
Prior to the Brexit vote senior European Commission officials were
privately jubilant about the opportunity that a British ‘leave’ vote would
present to complete the European project, sucking reluctant countries like Poland into the Euro “within
five years”.
It’s widely known that Juncker is a drunk liar. He confessed to being a
liar himself.
Apparently, even Chancellor Merkel has had enough of this drunken clown.
