Jean-Claude drunker

The atmosphere in Brussels has become, of late, reminiscent of the late Brezhnev era. We have a political system run by a bureaucratic apparatus which — just like the former USSR — serves to conceal important evidence. Especially when it comes to the health of its supreme leader, Jean-Claude Juncker.

At the Nato summit gala dinner last week, videos emerged showing Juncker unable to climb the few steps leading to the podium. He hesitates at the bottom before being grabbed by the very sturdy Ukrainian Petro Poroshenko. He is then held up during the ceremony. Afterwards Juncker — who is only 63, hardly an old man — staggers and wobbles away, propped up by Mark Rutte and António Costa, prime ministers of the Netherlands and Portugal. When asked about the incident, Juncker said that he suffered from sporadic ‘sciatica’. This remains the official explanation.

Anyone who dares question this explanation is guilty of ‘indecency’, according to Viviane Reding, an MEP and former Luxembourg commissioner. Reding is also the political patron of Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s great protégé, who recently plotted his way to become head of the mighty EU civil service. ‘I think it’s more than tasteless that some press try to make insulting headlines by exploiting President Juncker’s pain,’ said spokesman Margaritis Schinas. Move along, we are told: nothing to see.

But the ‘sciatica’ explanation does not really stand up to scrutiny. It would suggest Juncker suffered agonising back pain, but he did not seem to be in any discomfort. The video shows him smiling, laughing, talking and kissing his partners as they helped him walk. An acute crisis of sciatica nails its victims to bed. It’s possible that his movement may have been impaired by powerful painkillers.