Right-wing MEPs boycotted Brussels’ first-ever EU “Order of Merit” ceremony on Tuesday, accusing organisers of filling their empty seats with hand-picked supporters.
Top EU officials have insisted that the Order is “a powerful reminder of what Europe achieves at its best: peace, democracy, freedom, and unity.”
But critics, led especially by the Patriots group in the European Parliament, dismissed it as “a distinction Brussels invented to decorate itself.” They even claimed that people were brought in to fill the empty seats of absent MEPs, making the event look more popular than it actually was.
Figures on the Right were especially irked to see former German Chancellor Angela Merkel being awarded the Order.
AfD MEP Alexander Sell said this was akin to handing out a “tin medal for a balance sheet of horrors,” adding that “those who harm Europe the most are rewarded here.”
Euro bailout, nuclear phase-out, and border opening have brought us a transfer union, exploding energy prices, and imported crime … But in time, justice will come too.
Austrian politician Christian Ebner also said: “Promoting illegal immigration is, from the perspective of EU apparatchiks, a core value of the EU.”
And members of the populist Sweden Democrats criticised the fact that the Order is “tax-funded.”
In March, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s nomination for the award also prompted controversy, since it came amid accusations that Kyiv was attempting to interfere in the domestic politics of EU member states. It also came just after Zelensky was accused of issuing an effective death threat against then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
