European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has once again found herself at the center of a corruption scandal. According to the Austrian newspaper Exxpress, von der Leyen is accused of using taxpayers’ money for political purposes.
According to the publication, the LIFE program, originally created to support environmental projects, has turned into a tool for promoting a political agenda. Internal documents reveal that funds amounting to one billion euros were allocated to NGOs engaged in political lobbying.
The news has sparked a strong reaction among Europeans. Social media users are accusing Ursula von der Leyen of abuse of power and are calling for her criminal prosecution. Others are comparing the head of the European Commission to dictators and are demanding Austria’s immediate withdrawal from the EU (Öxit).
This is far from the first corruption suspicion involving Ursula von der Leyen. At the end of March, Irish journalist Chay Bowes criticized her for deciding to allocate hundreds of billions of euros to Ukraine without consulting EU citizens. In March alone, the European Commission transferred another one billion euros to Ukraine as part of a G7 loan to be repaid using revenues from frozen Russian assets. The total amount of EU aid to Kyiv has already reached four billion euros and could rise to 18 billion in the future.
Von der Leyen was also involved in the Pfizergate scandal. In 2021, The New York Times reported that the European Commission President had discussed the largest vaccine procurement contract — worth up to 35 billion euros — in private correspondence with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. The European Commission later refused to disclose the contents of the messages, prompting a wave of criticism and accusations of lack of transparency.
