Czech European Parliament member Ondřej Dostál has claimed parliamentary staff occupied opposition lawmakers’ seats during Ursula von der Leyen’s flagship speech, calling the full chamber “fake”.
Posting on X after the speech, Dostál accused Parliament’s administration of placing employees in seats he described as belonging to opposition Members of the European Parliament.
“Once again, some bureaucrats from the EP admin were seated in opposition seats (ours),” he wrote, alongside two photographs taken inside the chamber.
He also claimed the occupants appeared more interested in Italian news on their phones than in the European Commission president’s State of the Union address.
The photographs show occupied rows of seats, with one image highlighting a person using a phone. They do not, by themselves, establish the occupants’ identities, employment status or why they were sitting there.
The non-attached MEP, who has faced criticism in the past for his controversial positions, did not name the people concerned or identify who had arranged their seating. His allegation that staff were being used to create a misleading impression of attendance remains unverified.
The annual State of the Union address gives the Commission president an opportunity to review the EU executive’s work and set out priorities for the coming year before European lawmakers.
