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Summary: A reminder of the audacity of Benoît Battistelli, who in his capacity as a politician -- a problem in its own right -- slanders EPO staff

WHEN the man in charge of the EPO pretends there are no legitimate critics but only "Nazis" or "criminals" we know there's a serious problem. Battistelli's lies to the French Parliament in March 2016 were recalled by a reader of ours, who helped us get an accurate translation of what Battistelli had said. We need this for the record. Perhaps some people from the EPO can use that to take action against Battistelli, who is just a chronic liar with zero tolerance of criticism. We were amused to find this new comment last night. Posted by "Le roi est mort, vive le roi!" it said: "The King goes home!..the EPO has scheduled an EPO-SIPO conference in BB's [Battistelli] hometown near Paris." Battistelli and China's regime have a lot in common. Both suppress criticism (even severely punishing -- not just censoring -- critics) while lying to the public on a daily basis. That's a recipe for a great Battistelli meeting. There's lots of common ground there.

"I recently came across this document," told us a reader. We are making a local copy of it for long-term preservation purposes [PDF]. "It is the official minutes of a hearing which took place before the European Affairs Committee of the French Parliament on 1^st of March, 2016. The text of the minutes can be found online here. The PDF version is downloadable from this link. A video of the hearing (in French) can also be found here."

"The hearing mainly consists of a rather boring presentation of facts and figures by Battistelli," our reader told us. "However, it starts to get interesting when he is questioned about the social situation at the EPO and about the controversial disciplinary proceedings against staff representatives. The most interesting part is the following passage on page 15 of the minutes in which Battistelli responds to the questions about the disciplinary procedures and falsely accuses the dismissed staff representatives of having being involved in actions having a criminal character such as the alleged "use of Nazi symbols and slogans and insults to the German staff members on the basis of references to Nazism.""

Here is the relevant bit:

En l’occurrence, puisque vous abordez ce sujet, nous avons à faire face à la situation suivante : des représentants élus du personnel ont été conduits à démissionner six mois après leur élection, à la suite de harcèlement, de menaces, de tentatives de diffamation et de chantage. Ces personnels ont porté plainte. Il est de mon devoir de m’assurer que leur plainte est entendue, fait l’objet d’une enquête, puis que, selon les faits avérés, nos procédures disciplinaires sont appliquées – je précise que la composition de notre comité disciplinaire est paritaire. Je signale pour votre parfaite information que les faits qui ont justifié ces licenciements font l’objet d’une procédure au pénal ouverte en Allemagne, car ils sont de nature criminelle. Je tiens à votre disposition plusieurs éléments factuels à ce sujet, tels que l’emploi de symboles et de mots d’ordre nazis ainsi que d’injures visant des personnels de nationalité allemande sur la base de références au nazisme.

English translation:

In this case, since you have referred to the matter, we have to face the following situation: some elected staff representatives were driven to resign six months after their election, as a result of harassment, threats, defamation attempts and blackmail.

These staff members filed a complaint. It is my duty to ensure that their complaint is heard, forms the subject of an investigation, and that, on the basis of the facts determined, our disciplinary procedures are applied - I note that our disciplinary committee has a joint composition [Translator's Note: i.e. it includes members nominated by the staff committee].

For the completeness of your information, I would point out that the facts which justified the dismissals are the subject of pending criminal proceedings in Germany because they are of a criminal character. I can provide you with further factual details of this matter if required, such as the use of Nazi symbol and Nazi slogans and insults to the German staff members on the basis of references to Nazism.

We previously extracted (from the video) the audio of the relevant bits, but now we have the full text and a translation. "The minutes of the hearing and the associated video are part of the official public record of the French national parliament," our reader noted. "They provide incontrovertible documentary evidence about Battistelli's methods and the relentless smear campaign that he has been conducting against EPO staff representatives on the basis of false and unfounded accusations. It's incredible that somebody who so openly and brazenly misleads a national parliament with such false and apparently libellous accusations can still hold on to his job."

Battistelli has gotten away with scandals even worse than this. By failing to sack him the Administrative Council does itself irreparable damage and even after Battistelli is gone this damage will permeate and affect both the Office and the Council. ⬆