The vice-chair of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) has called on President Roberta Metsola to punish a left-wing MEP who implied he was a “racist”.
European Conservatives and Reformist (ECR) group MEP Charlie Weimers wrote to Metsola on July 25 demanding she takes punitive action against Greens rep Tineke Strik over comments she made about him during a sitting of the committee on July 23.
Speaking ahead of Weimers election as vice-chair during the LIBE session, Strik asked for the vote for him to be postponed “in order to make sure that ECR can find a more decent candidate, who is not racist”.
While the vote was shot down, Weimers has alleged that Strik’s statements were “not suitable for an elected Member of the Parliament acting in a formal parliamentary capacity”.
“Her intervention is completely inexcusable. She accuses me of not fully adhering to rule of law principles and fundamental rights and goes on to label me as indecent and as a racist,” Weimers wrote in a draft of the letter sent to Metsola seen by Brussels Signal.
Weimers went on to claim that Strik’s comments were an attempt to “vilify” him, as well as to “curtail and negate” his political mandate “as much as possible by profoundly slandering [his] character and denying voters … their seat at the table in the democratic debate”.
“An ever more polarised debate, as we have seen in the US will eventually lead to radicalization and violence that the European left is deploying the tactics of the American militant left should be met with stern action by the President of this house,” he wrote.
“The type of behaviour displayed by MEP Strik should not go unsanctioned, especially in an institution that aspires to uphold common European ideals of human rights and respectful and decent democratic discourse.
“I urge you to take resolute and immediate action against MEP Strik for her flagrant breach of good etiquette, decency and Rule 10 of our Rules of Procedure,” he concluded.
In response to a request for comment, Strik said that she had not heard about any complaint before being approached about it by Brussels Signal.
She added that she stood by her comments, claiming that Weimers and his Sweden Democrats party “often aligns people of a Muslim background with criminals”.
“I think this is not an appropriate representation of the LIBE committee,” she said.
Asked whether she thought Charlie Weimers was a racist, Strik claimed that her comments in the LIBE committee room did not make any such accusations directly.
“This is not what I said explicitly,” she claimed. “But indeed I think quite a number of his positions and expressions do have a racist element.”
Strik went on to allege that she was approached by Weimers after the committee, who reportedly told her that — while he would not stop expressing his own personal and political views in his capacity as a normal LIBE member — he would work hard to be neutral in his work as vice-chair.
The Dutch politician rejected such a claim.
“I don’t think you can be a different person actually while chairing and on the other hand say things that go right against the principles of the EU,” she said.
Strik also pleaded freedom of speech in relation to the comment, claiming that she thought “Weimers was very much in favour of freedom of expression” and that it was “a bit odd” that he “immediately” responded to her comments with a complaint.
“This is where I stand. Let’s see what Metsola will think about the complaint,” she added.
The European Parliament has published a report into the so-called “gendered” impact of the bloc’s inflation crisis, described by senior Swedish MEP Charlie @Weimers as a “woke” waste of taxpayer money. https://t.co/9u2UyOml0m
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 15, 2024
