Teenage activist Greta Thunberg has been approved as a speaker in Brussels notwithstanding a ban that is currently in place to more effectively control the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The move to present Thunberg as an “exception” to it has drawn the ire of quite a few MEPs, with Nuno Melo, from Portugal, directing a fiery address at EU Parliament President David Sassoli.
Melo dwelled on what he considers to be a bias towards the Swedish schoolgirl stating that “human beings are democratically equal".
Belgian MEP Hilde Vautman also chimed in wondering “how can we explain this to our visitors and guests".
“Everyone should be treated equally. If the European Parliament grants an exception to Greta Thunberg, this house will not be taken seriously", she explained.
“My assistant is not allowed to come to the plenary session in Strasbourg (next week), but Greta Thunberg will be there tomorrow", French MEP Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé tweeted, likewise expressing her annoyance.
A spokeswoman for the EU Parliament later argued that the decision has nothing to do “with a particular person".
“Any speaker specifically invited by the president of an official body of the parliament is allowed to attend", she shrugged off the accusations of the EU establishment’s bias.
Having the other day taken the floor talking to activists in Bristol, Thunberg, who has shot to fame since her solo protests against the human impact on the environment in front of the Swedish Parliament, is now set to deliver a speech in Brussels on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus epidemic, which kickstarted in the Chinese province of Hubei, has spilled well beyond the country’s borders, infecting as many as roughly 91,000 people across the world including in Italy, France, Russia, and the UK. Some 3,100 of those have succumbed to the disease.
