Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea from the nationalist party Alliance for the Unification of Romanians has sued European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for defamation, the news site Ziare reports, quoted by BTA.
Gheorghe Piperea collected signatures and submitted a motion for a vote of no confidence against Von der Leyen over the issue of secret messages exchanged in 2021 between the President of the European Commission and Albert Bourla - CEO of pharmaceutical giant "Pfizer". The no-confidence motion was rejected in mid-July.
Now, Gheorghe Piperea, who is from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, is suing von der Leyen for defamation, claiming that the European Commission President has linked him and other MEPs who signed the no-confidence motion to Russian influence and political extremism. The MEP is demanding a public apology from the Commission President for her claims, which he cited, that the signatories to the no-confidence motion are “friends of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin“, “extremists“ and conspiracy theorists.
The case has been referred to the Court of Justice of the EU, which has not yet ruled on its admissibility, Ziare reported.
The European Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, will face two no-confidence votes in the European Parliament in October, DPA reported earlier this week. Two political groups - the Left and the right-wing "Patriots for Europe" - announced that they would submit no-confidence votes. This happened just hours after Von der Leyen gave a speech to MEPs in which she outlined her main priorities for the coming years.