Both the European People’s Party (EPP) and The Left have voted against a debate about the scandal known as Pfizergate, a case in which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stands at the center.
The initiative, led by the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group and supported by VOX and Fidesz, sought to bring transparency to the opaque vaccine procurement contracts signed with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer during the pandemic—contracts that remain shielded from scrutiny. It also aimed to investigate broader corruption concerns plaguing EU institutions.
Far from being a trivial matter, Pfizergate strikes at the core of EU transparency, public fund accountability, and institutional integrity. 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 refused to release those messages, defying both Belgian courts and the European Court of Justice, which recently ruled that she breached EU transparency laws.
And yet—nothing happened.
No political consequences. No resignations. No inquiries. That the EPP, von der Leyen’s own political family, voted against the debate came as no surprise. But the fact that The Left joined them only reinforces what many have long suspected: when the core of the establishment feels threatened, ideological labels dissolve, and the machinery moves to shield itself. As Jorge Buxadé, head of the VOX delegation in Brussels, bluntly put it: “They stand with von der Leyen, with corruption, with looting our money.”
This defensive alliance doesn’t merely protect a compromised Commission President—it protects an entire political system: opaque, unaccountable, elitist, and hostile to democratic scrutiny. The pattern is all too familiar. From Qatargate to the Moroccogate, from EU-funded NGOs with political ties to the unexplained wealth of commissioners like Didier Reynders, scandals erupt… only to fade into silence.
For Anders Vistisen, PfE group leader, the refusal to allow a debate marks a direct betrayal of democratic principles. “If von der Leyen has nothing to hide, then she has nothing to fear,” he declared.
