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Back pain, not alcohol, caused Juncker summit stumble: EU
BRUSSELS, July 13, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The EU on Friday said back pain caused
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to stumble at a NATO summit and
denied “insulting” insinuations that he was drunk.
The 63-year-old was seen repeatedly unsteady on his feet at the summit
dinner at a historic museum in Brussels on Wednesday night, before having to
be helped away in a wheelchair.
At times the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Portugal propped him
up while world leaders including US President Donald Trump and British Prime
Minister Theresa May looked on.
“The president Wednesday night suffered from a very particularly painful
attack of sciatica accompanied by cramps,” European Commission spokesman
Margaritis Schinas told a daily briefing.
“The president has himself publicly stated that this sciatica affects his
ability to walk. That was unfortunately the case Wednesday night,” Schinas
added.
“The president wishes to thank publicly Prime Ministers Mark Rutte and
Antonio Costa for assisting him during this painful moment. He is taking
medication and feels better.”
Sciatica is a nerve condition that can cause severe leg and back pain.
Juncker, whose five-year mandate as head of the EU’s executive arm ends in
2019, is known to use his sense of humour and frankness to achieve compromise
in the 28-nation European Union.
But his behaviour has triggered accusations that he has a penchant for
alcohol, which his spokesmen have always strongly denied, and did so again
when asked if he was drunk on Wednesday.
“I think it’s more than tasteless that some press tried to make insulting
headlines by exploiting president Juncker’s pain. I don’t think this is
elegant and I don’t think this is fair,” Schinas said.
Asked if Juncker, who is also an admitted smoker, had mixed painkillers
and alcohol, Schinas replied: “No he didn’t, at least I am not aware of this
happening.”
The spokesman added that Juncker had a “full programme” at NATO and the
commission on Thursday, and will stick to a “very demanding agenda” next week
including a trip to China and Japan.
It is not the first time Juncker’s behaviour at public events has faced
scrutiny.
At the opening of a summit in the Latvian capital Riga in 2015 a light-
hearted and tactile Juncker kissed leaders on the head, fiddled with their
ties, saluted, and slapped them not just on the back but also on the stomach,
chest and face.
Juncker also teased Hungary’s hardline rightwing Prime Minister Viktor
Orban over his strongman reputation, jokingly greeting him as “dictator”.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1734 hrs