TO VAX OR NOT TO VAX: In the German debate about how to best nudge those who remain stubbornly unvaccinated toward getting jabbed, there’s disharmony across the political tribes and the federal and state levels, but also within parties. Armin Laschet, the CDU’s candidate for chancellor in the September election, said those who test negative for the coronavirus, have recovered from COVID or are vaccinated ought to be exempt from restrictions. He told ZDF in an interview that aired Sunday evening: “I don’t believe in mandatory vaccination, and I don’t believe in putting indirect pressure on people to get vaccinated.”
Follow RT on With ‘Sofagate’ still raw for humiliated Euro boss Ursula von der Leyen, her companion in Ankara faces a fight to hold his job as one ex-MEP accuses Charles Michel of failing to react to a sexist Turkish President Erdogan.
When someone falls victim to a lapse in manners, the matter is often settled with a quick apology and life goes on. But not, it seems, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is still fuming nearly a month after the ‘Sofagate’ affair that left her humiliated in Ankara.
Having failed to offer the EC president a seat, her companion, President of the European Council Charles Michel, instead accepted a gilded chair at the side of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while von der Leyen sat on an adjacent sofa. Video of the incident soon went viral.