Bonum Certa Men Certa

Confirmed by Dutch Media (Telegraaf): Benoît Battistelli Makes Unreasonable Compensation Demands

Telegraaf article



Summary: Based on an article published late on Friday, Battistelli is hoping to get a presidential salary for several decades to come even once he's out the Office, which makes imperative all sorts of hard questions

LITTLE by little many of the "rumours" we heard and learned about turn out to be facts. One such "rumour" was snowballing into what we later called "reinforced rumour" because the lawyer of SUEPO said it to Dutch media and now it's actually in headlines of Dutch media, and not even with a question mark.



Battistelli must be living in a dream; based on his salary (which we think we now know, and it's a lot less than publicly assumed), he wishes to receive a presidential salary until he's about a hundred years old (if the compensation was to be split into annual 'chunks', along the lines of Brimelow's pay grade). He should be the one compensating the EPO for the damage he did to it after more than four decades of reputation-building efforts (the damage may be valued at billions of euros).

Human-corrected (by Petra Kramer) machine translation of this new article ("Franse despoot wil 18 miljoen bij vertrek", published 18:36 CET on Friday) can be found below, with a few bits highlighted in yellow:

French despot wants 18 million on departure



by Marieke van Essen

THE HAGUE - The controversial French president of the European Patent Office (EPO), Benoît Battistelli, "demands 18 million, or ten years' salary on his departure." According to sources within the international organization, which has an office in Rijswijk among other places.

Battistelli is already under fire for some time because of his reign of terror that according to the union. He deteriorated working conditions and suggested severe reprisals against trade unionists who criticize his policies. In Rijswijk two representatives are at home on sick leave after being submitted to alleged "intimidating integrity investigations". The last three years regrettably there were five suicides at the EPO.

Meanwhile, not only the staff are complaining, but for the first time the Member States (38 countries) turned against the Frenchman who took office in 2010. This is evident from a letter from Jesper Kongstad, the Danish president of the Administrative Council, a sort of supervisory board in which the 38 participating countries are represented.

Kongstad, whose letter is in possession of the Telegraaf, requests Battistelli to investigate any disciplinary measures against members of the union by an external committee. "Unfortunately we can not carry any meaningful conversation with the president," writes Kongstad.

EPO staff who are in contact with the outside world through secret email addresses and telephone numbers, managed to tell that the days of Battistelli are numbered. "The chance that he will have to leave is huge. Twenty countries are against," says one. "He's already been called the man of eighteen million," says the other. "It is a true dictatorship. We have already several deputy bosses who come from the French secret service or the military. It is really starting to be ridiculous. These types get paid more than 15 grand a month and do everything the big boss orders them to do."

On March 16 delegates from the 38 participating countries officially vote on the proposals from Kongstad. Battistelli now lobbies with Member States to get them to abandon the independent investigation. According to the president, the EPO is "healthier than ever."


This serves to prove a lot of what we wrote before, but the part about Battistelli's salary we very much doubt as it would serve to suggest that his salary was hiked to almost 2 million euros (per annum). Battistelli's salary will be the subject of a future post because it requires some further verification. Another possibility is that the number (18 million) is not correct and that it's actually 10 years' salary, based on extrapolation of a much lower figure (salary). We have been getting contradictory reports about the exact number, but it seems possible that 10 years' salary is what Battistelli insists on. Either way, this is where Battistelli's unacceptable secrecy about his salary (his predecessor disclosed hers) actually harms him even more.

"We have been getting contradictory reports about the exact number, but it seems possible that 10 years' salary is what Battistelli insists on."As someone told us a while back, "Alison Brimelow was massively into transparency. Seems odd that Battistelli could have demanded a much higher salary than her, unless he really, really promoted the "reforms" as some massive task of work that would totally change the office. For the better, I mean."

For comparative purposes, as one person put it, "Martin Schulz (President of the European Parliament) gets 200K plus expenses, President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, gets 112.5% of the top civil service grade, which is around 300K." Does Battistelli receive 6 (six!) times what the latter gets (President of the European Commission)? We doubt it. If it's true, then that in itself is a massive scandal to come. Consider that people who control his salary are also more or less in his 'circle', which might lead to allegations of corruption (the Bygmalion Affair notwithstanding).

If Battistelli stays (until 2018, which is extremely improbable), he'll be paid for 2-3 years' work; why should he be paid for 10 (or more) upon resignation, caused to a large degree by his own folly? It beggars belief.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Some Cola Formulas Aren't Secret, But the Barrier is the Branding
That's the power of the channel/distribution, marketing, and brand recognition (accomplished through endless marketing)
Tesla's Debt More Than Doubled in 2 Years and the Company Will Operate in the Red (at a Loss) Quite Soon
If your first-quarter net income is $409 million and you borrow billions from banks, plus interest to pay on those loans, then you're not far from returning to losses
Microsoft and Windows Have Many Back Doors, But LLM Slop Keep Claiming That Linux Has "Backdoor"
It's another example of LLM slop as FUD amplifier, via slopfarms as well
 
IRC Turns 37
Internet Relay Chat (short: IRC), which started in 1988, turns 37 this month
Shortly After a Microsofter Took Over The Register as Editor in Chief Microsoft Tim (Tim Anderson) is Back and It's Still Microsoft Propaganda, Sometimes Funded by Microsoft
Notice his focus
Stricter Enforcement of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act is Sorely Needed
Who's keeping track anyway?
Calling Plagiarism "Intelligence" is Pure Genius, Brilliance!
One thing to "like" (or dislike) about LLMs is how they're falsely marketed using various buzzwords
Geminispace Promises Simplicity But Also Provides a "bunch of forums that get flood-filled by agitation against the very essence of Gemini itself"
claims of stagnation in Geminispace started because of a person who spent a long time agitating against GNU/Linux as well
Zimbabweans Aren't Into Windows or Microsoft
This cannot be good news for GAFAM
Microsoft's Washington Layoffs Aren't Everything, They're Definitely Not Happening in Just One State in the US
Washington is just more strict with WARN notices
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Lagrange v1.18.6, No Stagnation in Geminispace, and Fake Coding (Slop)
Links for the day
The Register's Editor in Chief (Who Left for Google) Told Me "AI" Was a Bubble, But Now The Register Gets Paid to Participate in Inflating This Bubble
A lot of the online media is a scam
Introducing Mission:Libre and FreeXR (and BreakXR)
efforts that accompany the foundations put there by the Free Software Foundation in 1985
Slopwatch: WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and Some Success Stories
Google News still has a slopfarm issue
Links 05/08/2025: Hey Hi (AI) Passing Fads and GAFAM "Embracing the Military"
Links for the day
Links 05/08/2025: Samsung and Microsoft Layoffs
Links for the day
Rumours of Mass Layoffs at Red Hat Next Week (August 11th, 2025)
The eleventh means next Monday
IBM is Shutting Down (Piecewise)
IBM is basically being liquidated
The Debian Language Police Department (PD)
"there has never been complaints about anyone that was offended by this -off package"
When The Register MS Says "Linux Backdoor" It Actually Talks About Malware
The leading story in The Register US/MS this morning is Microsoft
Microsoft Windows Fell to 19% "Market Share" in Montenegro
Microsoft must be well aware of this trend
Why We Also Include Gopher Links in Our Gemini (Protocol) Links
There are still many people who use Gopher to relay their messages (like blog posts). They're mostly technical people.
Shouting is an Indication of a Lack of Convincing Argument
Beware what they are attempting to distract from
Mongolia: Microsoft Windows at All-Time Low
in 2009 when Windows was at 99.45% in Mongolia the company was "worth" less than 200 billion dollars
About a Quarter of Today's "linux" News in Google News Came From One Domain and It's a Slopfarm
Not kidding!
Gemini Links 05/08/2025: Zombie Threat and Switching to NixOS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 04, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 04, 2025
ChatGPT in Trouble
Watch out for the newer buzzwords
The Register MS Links to the Wrong statCounter Page
They link to older data
Dr. Andy Farnell Explains How Google Turned From "Librarian" Into "Oracle", Telling Us What to Think Instead of Where to Look
Google was always a lousy librarian
Microsoft Layoffs Continue in August 2025
If Microsoft is doing so well, how come about 10 rounds of layoffs in about 7 months in 2025?
In Many Countries Vista 11 Adoption Stalled or Became Negative
Not just because people move to GNU/Linux
Microsofters' Lawyers Are Name-calling and Insulting Microsoft Critics, Even Their Spouses
How not to win arguments
Flagging or Tagging Slop That We Find Online
Right now we use ImageMagick
Links 04/08/2025: Very Bad Weather and Travel Restrictions in China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Misiamisia and Mobile Linux
Links for the day
Microsoft's Stock is Like a Religion, Microsoft Goes Into 'Hiding' (From Shareholders)
like a religious person or devout believer, the media just parrot anything Microsoft says
Links 04/08/2025: 80 Years Since Last Nuclear War, IPv6 in China
Links for the day
Groklaw Static Site Relaunches With New Theme, But Many Pages and All the Comments Are Missing
We suppose that's still a lot better than the site being offline, as it was for several months
"For Five decades; For freedoms; For all users" (Original EMACS Turns 50 Next Year)
Linus Benedict Torvalds was only 6 when EMACS started
In Spain, Microsoft's Search Engine Market Share Fell to 2%
16 years have passed since Bing was introduced
Protecting GNU/Linux-Centric Journalism From Serial Sloppers
Unoriginal slop is taking away traffic from the people who did all the real work
It Looks Like Managers at Oracle Now Use LLM Slop to Write Blog Posts
Did he cheat by prompting LLMs for mindless text "filler"?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 03, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 03, 2025
Gemini Links 04/08/2025: Qubes OS and Curious crypto case of certificates (CCCC)
Links for the day
They Tell Us That "Cloud Storage" is Safe and Robust to Incidents Like Fires
Do you have backups? Where are they and who controls them?
"Allowing SDL to default to Wayland caused a number of customer issues so keep the default at X11 for now"
2025 is another year of Wayland ambitions. It's also a year of self-fulfilling prophecies.
In The United Kingdom (UK), Microsoft Search (Bing) Falls to All-Time Low
Grow? What grow??? It's collapsing.
GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Oman
Some GNU/Linux distros are made in Oman
Google's "AI Mode" is a Pathetic Joke Prematurely Introduced in the UK (Like "Bard", Which Sank the Company's Shares)
what Google "thinks" about PCLinuxOS
What the Free Software Foundation Started Four Decades Ago is Becoming Mainstream
"Four decades; Four freedoms; For all users"
Doing a Better Job at Labelling Slop Images
we'll label screenshots that contain slop, typically with red-coloured text overlay
Social Control Media is Out of Style
What's your excuse for wasting time on (or in) it?
Maldives: GNU/Linux at All-Time High, Windows at New Lows
data from statCounter shows a reassuring trend
Efficiency is Good, So Why Won't Governments Cull LLM Companies Using Stronger, Stringent Policies?
Like every bubble that ever existed, including some recent ones, an end will come
The Defunct Site LinuxConfig Has Published a Fake Article About Richard Stallman Using LLM Slop, Which Stallman Calls "Bullshit Generator"
Worse yet, it is writing using a "Bullshit Generator" (the term used by Stallman) about Stallman's health
Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Lows in Morocco and Algeria
About 70% or even less
StopGenAI in the Cyber Show (C|S)
covering a theme that we too covered a lot lately
Gemini Links 03/08/2025: Once-a-Decade Couch Shopping and Blessings in Disguise
Links for the day
Links 03/08/2025: Political Catch-up, Global Warming, and Hunger
Links for the day
Brittany Day Entered LLM Slop Into LinuxSecurity.com and Something Hilarious Happened: The Site is "Exploited"
The brainless, effortless copypasta of "slop artists" shows its limits
Links 03/08/2025: Microsoft Exchange 0-day Exploited and Avoidable Nuclear Escalation
Links for the day
Next Month 'New Techrights' Turns Two
Next month, on the fourth week, it'll be 2 years since the migration
Definitely Not a Ponzi Scheme
Bitcoin v Microsoft
Online Safety Act Tries to Accomplish the Impossible
All I can say is, "good luck with that!"
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a Billionaires' Lobby
Billionaires that control tech companies
Microsoft Borrows 3 Billion Dollars Per Month, a Company Truly Worth Trillions Would Not Do This
if Windows (and Office) "market share" fell from about 90% to barely 30%, how come Microsoft is now "valued" at 20 times more?
It's Even Worse Than Microsoft Lunduke Puts It; GNOME is SLAPPing Journalists
In our experience, GNOME is so malicious - some elements of it in particular - that it would launch multiple simultaneous SLAPP campaigns not only against journalists but also their spouses
GNU/Linux Adoption Reaches All-Time Highs in Chile, statCounter Indicates
This month marks 4 years since Vista 11 came out (as a fake "leak") and some surveys still measure its adoption at less than 40%
Slop Will Not Change the World
Some of us grow up sooner and leave that nonsense behind (or altogether avoid/skip it)
Gemini Links 03/08/2025: Nostalgia and TOFU
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 02, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 02, 2025