All Borrell actually does, in fact, is whine. He whines about his own failure. And he tends to do it quite a bit, particularly with the implosion of EU economies following EU sanctions against Russia.
What is wrong with the hapless Josep Borrell, a man so interminably boring that no one apparently takes him seriously or listens to his pathetic tirades. Is this entirely ineffective cretinous EU diplomat really helping the EU develop an identity as a global player, or is he making matters worse and only ensuring that the bloc can never have a solid foreign policy and only talk of having one? In short, is he part of the problem rather than the solution?
Ever since the Lisbon Treaty was adopted in 2007, the EU has believed that it can be a player around the world, imposing its views and hegemony, usually linked to huge sacks of cash it distributes to the Global South. And it, strangely, has also chosen a socialist from a Mediterranean country to be its top diplomat to preside over the new EU diplomatic corps, made up of over 120 ‘ambassadors’ based in the EU’s missions around the world.
And yet it is though the EU knows that it will never get the support it needs from member states to move ahead with big policy ideas, so it usually choses a third class, underwhelming politician who has long since been washed up in his own country, to take the top job in Brussels.
And there really is no one more underwhelming than Borrell who has been loyal to the EU elite for most of the latter part of his so-called career and really has nowhere else to go for a job. And yet, this buffoon is getting noticed for being the lame duck that he is around the world and how impotent he and the EU is on the world’s stage. All Borrell actually does, in fact, is whine. He whines about his own failure. And he tends to do it quite a bit, particularly with the implosion of EU economies following EU sanctions against Russia.
Who could forget the tantrum he threw about Russia’s foreign minister back in July? He was widely reported to complain about “massive coverage” of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by the media, stating that “lies circulate faster than the truth”.
Apparently tone deaf to how he came across as a loser, Borrell told a Spanish radio station he protested that Lavrov gets more attention in the Western media and added it gave the Russian an “edge”. Lavrov’s recent visit to African countries – DR Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda – resulted in the Russian diplomat persuading Africans that Western-imposed sanctions had led to the global crisis. Poor Borrell. No one listens to him or reads his press releases or speeches.
It must be hard being the EU’s top envoy when no one takes you seriously and you are left as a bystander to the events, like the decision by EU foreign ministers to crack down on Russians seeking EU visas. Oh well, at least he probably was one of the first people to hear about it.
Perhaps not.
One of the most remarkable things about the Spanish politician is how ill-informed he is about global events. This ignorance is only matched by his poodle-like relationship he has with Anthony Blinken who, in reality, probably does consider him to be a servile miniature pet. The American diplomat literally tells his EU counterpart how to think, speak, function.
Just recently, some were shocked by Borrell’s admission that he was so poorly informed about the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that he received a telephone call from the Americans two days before it happened warning him of it. And this is the top diplomat of the EU which offered Ukraine a special accession deal in 2014! How is it possible someone so important is so fabulously ignorant of a key region which the EU is so interested in manipulating for its own geopolitical gains?
This particular nugget of news came out, during another one of Borrell’s pitiful tantrums where he essentially bursts into tears and blubs about how nothing is working for him, which usually leads to him pointing the finger.
This time it was at his own diplomats who work for him at a conference. In an extraordinary outburst during a briefing to the European External Action Service, Borrell said he was fed up finding out information from newspapers before hearing it from his own officials.
“This is not a moment when we are going to send flowers to all of you saying that you are beautiful, you work very well and we are very happy, we are one big family,” Borrell said.
“I do not want to blame and shame but this is something that I have to tell you. I want you to be more reactive, 24 hours a day. I need you to report fast, in real time, on what is happening in your countries,” he said. “I want to be informed by you, not by the press. Sometimes, I knew more of what was happening somewhere by reading the newspapers than reading your reports”.
And so the grand project which costs a billion dollars a year to pay the salaries of these diplomats is a failure as the officials themselves are more or less useless. No big news there. But if the team is led by someone who redefines the word ‘useless’ then some will argue it’s hardly a surprise nothing is working. Blind leading the blind.
Borrell will always remain someone who remains useless in Brussels. The incredible thing is that he doesn’t understand that this is the agenda from those with real power within the EU. He is meant to be ineffective. But don’t let that stop him going off script sometimes to compensate for being a spectator to a huge game being played out which he should count himself lucky to even be invited to watch.
Recently another odd, mid-life crisis rant was delivered by Borrell who referred to the EU as a “garden” and everything beyond its borders as a “jungle”. Was he referring to Africa whose migrants continue to penetrate the soft underbelly of Europe via the southern coastline of his own country? This Joseph Conrad moment perhaps reveals what and who Borrell is but also casts a shadow over what the EU is and will always be: a white supremacist organisation. What a loser. And what a remarkable speech. Perhaps the old fool thinks he is Tarzan and Ursula von der Leyen as Jane.
