We have entered a battle between democracy and illiberalism, we see dangerous threats from extremist parties who want to polarize society with disinformation. There is evidence that they rely on support from our enemies and are puppets of Russia or someone else. This was stated today by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, dedicated to the vote of no confidence submitted against her, BTA reports.
Von der Leyen was booed repeatedly and interrupted once by MEPs who disagreed with her words. The vote of no confidence is scheduled for Thursday. The vote was brought about by the EC President's refusal to show the messages she exchanged with the head of the company "Pfizer", a manufacturer of Covid vaccines, when preparing supply contracts for the EU during the pandemic.
The claims that the supply contracts did not comply with the rules and were contrary to the European interest are wrong, Von der Leyen said. It is a lie that any EU country did not know about the contracts, prices or quantities, she added.
The negotiations on the contracts were attended by representatives of the EC and EU countries. Each contract was reviewed in detail in the capitals of the EU countries before it was signed by each country. There will be no secrets, no hidden clauses, no obligations to buy vaccines. All EU countries decided to buy vaccines of their own free will, added Von der Leyen.
"It is no secret that I have been in contact with the management of vaccine companies to get us out of the crisis. In the same way, I have been in contact with the best epidemiologists and virologists in the world, with UN organizations and with non-governmental organizations", she added.
According to her, thanks to the negotiations, vaccines were provided on equal terms for EU countries. Extremists hate such a Europe, commented the EC President. We must be proud and not let extremists rewrite history, said Von der Leyen and called for unity of democratic forces in the EU.