June 25, 2008
Pöttering’s qualifications
For a good chuckle, check out the Wikipedia entry of Hans-Gert Pöttering, the European Parliament’s president. Point No.3, headlined “Commission Speculation”, says there are rumours that Pöttering will be Germany’s next member of the European Commission, succeeding Günter Verheugen.
The entry states: “It is widely known that Angela Merkel wants to nominate a Christian Democrat as Commissioner designate for the next Commission mandate 2009-2014 and Pöttering is seen by many as a strong and properly qualificated contestant for the job.”
Hmm. Let’s have another look at that. “Properly qualificated”? If I were a betting man, I’d say that boo-boo represented a German-speaker’s attempt at translating “qualifiziert” (”qualified”). Which raises the fascinating question of who wrote or edited the Wikipedia entry.
Editing your Wikipedia profile, or the profile of your boss, your company, your friend or your political hero, is not unknown. Changes to Richard Nixon’s profile have been traced to the computers of CIA staff. Changes to entries about Roman Catholic saints have been traced to Vatican computers.
But the European Parliament, majestic and terrifying though it no doubt is, isn’t the CIA or the Vatican. And naturally, I have no idea who wrote or edited Pöttering’s Wikipedia profile.
But two things are clear. First, Pöttering will be out of his present job after the next European Parliament elections in June 2009. Second, no one close to Merkel seriously thinks she wants to make Pöttering Germany’s next EU commissioner.
All of which makes me wonder who is promoting Pöttering’s candidacy on the Wikipedia website. But the truth is I’m not properly qualificated to judge.
The edits are from last week, by a user with the name ‘Pennybingo’, but I can’t track the IP address of that user. There are no anonymous edits of the Pöttering profile from within the EP - have a look at Wikiscanner.
Posted by: Jon Worth | June 25th, 2008 at 11:13 am | Report this commentSigh… CDU politics are followed by a lot of people in Germany, and all of those people could have edited the Pöttering entry. This is really smoke about nothing.
If you would follow the internal politics of the CDU more closely, you might notice that he is a member of the highly influential ‘Andenpakt’, which includes the current Minister of Defence, and four federal Minister Presidents.
Merkel, in other words, may well be pressured to nominate Pöttering. The party is far from her personal fiefdom.
Posted by: Nanne | June 25th, 2008 at 4:57 pm | Report this commentLife is too short to follow the detailed internal party politics of all the other nations. Pöttering will treat European citizens like a bunch of idiots who don’t know what’s good for them. Don’t expect any change in approach if he is nominated for the Commission.
If my fellow European public servants, MEPS included, would treat the European citizen in the same way a good company treats its customers or its shareholders then we would escape the doldrums in which Europe is now trapped.
Reviving Europe is probably more urgent than we realise. How long can our authority survive without the oxygen of European citizens’ approbation?
Posted by: Central Scrutiniser | June 25th, 2008 at 10:19 pm | Report this commentThe content was, in fact added on 12:31, 11 May 2008 by an IP address, 213.5.139.28, which resolves to Altec Communications Network, an Athens based internet service provider.
The IP also edited articles concerned with Franco Frattini, Christian Wulff and Martin Schulz. None of these edits involved speculation.
Posted by: Simon Smith | June 26th, 2008 at 1:18 pm | Report this commentWhat’s the big deal about this thing? And I don’t think it’s very kind to say that Poettering treats people like there are idiots Mr. so Central Scrutiniser! And I believe that was a very disgraceful comment! And why isn’t he qualified for the job?
Anyway I searched in his profile in Wikipedia minutes ago and the ”Commission Speculation” thing has been deleted!
Well I personally think he would make a quite good commissioner better than Verheugen!
And Mr. Central Scrutiniser are you really working for the EU? Hard to believe it judging by the comment!
Posted by: Angela | September 4th, 2008 at 12:53 am | Report this comment