EU spin doctor lobs Twitter bomb at Trump, populist politicians

A leading aide to top European Union official Jean-Claude Juncker railed against Donald Trump and other populist politicians on Thursday, bemoaning the thought of them in power as a "horror scenario".

The EU quickly backed away from the comments made on social media by Martin Selmayr, chief of staff to EU Commission President Juncker, who is at G7 talks in Japan. However, it insisted it was not an attempt to interfere in domestic politics.

"#G7 2017 with Trump, Le Pen, Boris Johnson, Beppe Grillo?," Selmayr tweeted.

"A horror scenario that shows well why it is worth fighting populism."

Trump, the billionaire US real-estate mogul and reality TV star, has dominated headlines since launching his presidential campaign last year with a mix of incendiary comments and policy stances seen as insulting  Mexicans, Muslims and women, among others.

Europe has also faced a rise of colourful rightist politicians such as France's Marine Le Pen, Italy's Beppe Grillo and more recently Britain's Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London who has spearheaded a campaign for his country to leave the EU. 

Selmayr is well known in Brussels as a skilled spin doctor and a powerful influence behind the scenes in Juncker's European Commission. But he is also a controversial figure.

In January Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi reportedly sought to have Selmayr sacked after Italian media accused the German of briefing against Renzi.

European Commission spokesman Alex Winterstein was asked at a daily briefing in Brussels for Juncker's view, with the question: "yes or no, does Juncker agree with Selmayr?". 

"I will not enter into Twitterology, if you want to find out the nature of the opinion of Twitter you just have to check the Twitter profile," Winterstein said.

"The key point here is that the challenges that we are facing in Europe but also at G7 are one of a global nature."

He was also asked whether the tweet represented interference in British voting, which the Commission has vowed not to do.

"I don't see any insults, nor do I see any interference into any camp, neither the American campaign nor the campaign in the United Kingdom" on EU membership, Winterstein said. 

Source: AFP