The Brexit Blog

The Brexit Blog
News and comment on the Brexit process, as Britain tries to leave the EU.

Monday 1 February 2021

Ursula von der Leyen - A Case Study in Rewarding Failure

 


The last few days have been somewhat of a clusterfuck for the EU Commission under the "leadership" of Ursula von der Leyen.

Not content with libelling AstraZenca and publishing the confidential contract whilst leaving in links to the sensitive redacted parts of the contract, VDL and her team then blocked exports of covid vaccine and imposed a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland without even telling the Irish and British that they were going to do it.

Unsurprisingly that action brought down a firestorm of criticism from around the world and, within a few hours, VDL was forced to about face and rescind the hard border and promise that vaccine supplies to the UK would not be blockaded.

Should this clusterfuck come as a surprise?

No!

VDL's career has been riddled with screw ups and allegations of corruption eg:

- during her time as German defence minister the Bundeswehr's condition was described a "catastrophic" by a former defence minister

- none of the German submarine fleet was seaworthy

- German soldiers took part in a multinational exercise with broom handles for guns

- VDL faced an investigation for corruption and wrongdoing wrt using outside consultants

- VDL has even faced allegations of plagiarism for a thesis she wrote whilst studying medicine

It is therefore not surprising that she was promoted to EC President, as that was the most effective and least embarrassing means of removing her from German politics.

However, as #VaccineGate has shown she is now in a position where she can wreak even more havoc.

Will she resign?

No, of course not, she is already taking credit for AstraZeneca's promise to increase vaccine shipments to the EU bu 9 million to 40 million during Q1.

This is all very well and nice, except that is the very same deal that she rejected only a few days earlier!

Given her talent for clustefucks, it is likely that in order to get rid of her she will have to be promoted to another high office in the very near future.

Goodness knows what/where that will be!

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