Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO Guest Article: “Pope” Benoît Refuses to Recognise Reformation Day 2017!

Photos: From the UIMP ceremony where Benoît Battistelli, allegedly owing to EPO connections, was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2014.

Benoît Battistelli at UIMP



Summary: Benoît Battistelli, the EPO's President, again shows his general attitude towards staff and staff's rights

According to tradition 31 October 1517 is the day on which the German monk Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg. Although there are doubts about the accuracy of the various historical accounts relating to this event it has been verified that Luther sent a copy of his work to the Archbishop of Mainz on the same date.



Benoît Battistelli at UIMPThe day which is regarded as the start of the Reformation is a significant one for many Protestant communities, in particular Lutherans. It is a statutory holiday in parts of continental Europe, in particular Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Although it is normally only celebrated on a regional basis, it was decided in Germany that in 2017 the 31 October should be declared a nationwide public holiday in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

In the meantime reports are circulating in Munich that the self-proclaimed Pontifex Maximus of Eponia does not want to commemorate the recalcitrant German monk's defiant act of insubordination towards the Papal autocracy of sixteenth century Europe.

According to reliable sources Battistelli has announced that the EPO offices in Munich and Berlin will not be closing their doors on 31 October in recognition of Reformation Day 2017.

Benoît Battistelli at UIMPApart from being perceived as an arrogant affront to the historical and cultural traditions of the main EPO host state this announcement has apparently annoyed contract staff employed by the EPO who are reported to have put in a claim for double pay in line with the normal supplement they get when they are required to work on a day which is a statutory public holiday.

Although Battistelli will no doubt succeed in his plans to prevent his Eponian vassals from commemorating Reformation Day the supplementary payments for contract staff are likely to cost the EPO a pretty penny. But since it's "other people's money" why should he care about that?

It remains to be seen whether or not anybody will risk excommunication by trying to trigger off a modern-day Reformation at the EPO by nailing a set of theses to the door of its headquarters on 31 October.

While it is tempting to speculate about this, inside sources say that the increased security and surveillance measures which have been put in place at the EPO headquarters during recent months are likely to act as a deterrant to any aspiring latter-day Martin Luthers in the land of Eponia.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
 
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
eight-part series
Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
We Shall See...
My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
Going Offline
There was life before the Net
The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
It is basically a fake address on the face of it
There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025