Has Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s dance around accountability for the Pfizergate scandal finally come up against a brick wall? Romanian MEP Gheorge Piperea (European Conservatives and Reformists) believes so after gathering enough votes for a vote of no confidence in the European Parliament.
Piperea plans to table a no-confidence motion against Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday, after securing over 72 signatures.
“This is about transparency and a fair democratic process,” he told the Financial Times.
Von der Leyen is expected to survive the vote, which is likely to take place next month, but may need to make concessions to both left and right. Although the threshold for forcing a vote is low, removing her would require support from over two-thirds of the 720 MEPs. She won 401 votes a year ago but has since lost some backing.
In what has been referred to as “the biggest corruption scandal in human history, von der Leyen negotiated the purchase of 1.8 billion Pfizer vaccine doses—worth €35 billion—via private text messages, as part of a broader €70 billion deal. Shockingly, less than 20% of those doses were ever used, with the rest likely destined for destruction. For over two years, the Commission president has refused to release those messages, defying both Belgian courts and the European Court of Justice, which ruled that she breached EU transparency laws. In May, the Left and the European People’s Party killed a discussion of Pfizergate, proposed by Patriots for Europe, in the EU Parliament.
If the vote did succeed, the entire Commission would be forced to resign.
