EU’s Executive Regrets Its President’s Support For Croatian Ruling Party
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – The European Union’s executive has apologized after its leader threw her support behind the victorious ruling conservative party in Croatia’s parliamentary elections. Ursula von der Leyen, the German president of the European Commission, appeared with other center-right politicians in a promotional video clip posted by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party.
That happened ahead of Sunday’s vote, which the conservatives won. The European Commission expressed regrets that Von der Leyen breached the code of conduct for Commission members.
The code states that members “shall abstain from making public statements or interventions on behalf of any political party or organization of the social partners of which they are members.” Except when they stand for election or participate in a vote.
Reacting to the massive criticism on social media, the chief spokesman for the commission, Eric Mamer, admitted that mistakes were made. “The president was informed that as a certain number of mistakes were made in the context of the production of this video,” he told reporters.
“And therefore we need to ensure that the procedures that are followed next time if there is a next time allow us to avoid this unintentional mistake. As too, whether we have to receive complaints. There has been one request [so far] which has been made for this matter to be investigated,” the spokesman added.
Von der Leyen was identified as the European Commission president in the video and was filmed standing in front of a European Union flag. Critics fear the video for a party of the same European political family as Van der Leyen’s impacted Sunday’s election outcome. First official results suggest that Croatia’s ruling conservatives overwhelmingly won the vote.
The HDZ was due to receive some 66 seats in Croatia’s 151-seat parliament. It is likely to form a new coalition government with smaller right-wing groups. Sunday’s ballot in Croatia came despite concerns of a spike in coronavirus cases in the heavily Catholic Balkan nation.
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