The Double Standards of the European Commission

The message read: “BERL – URGENT – Due to extreme weather, air conditioning will be turned off from floors 1 to 7 for the rest of the day.”

The air conditioning was turned off on the bottom seven floors. The upper floors – including the 13th where Ursula von der Leyen sits and the commissioners have their offices – remained cool. It’s not a rumor as Politico Europe revealed the same day.

The General Reaction to the News Was Fierce

Pieter Cleppe, editor-in-chief of BrusselsReport.eu wrote a tweet that went viral: “The European Commission in Brussels has turned off the air conditioning, but only for the lower floors, where the lower levels work: ‘It’s like feudalism,’ a commission official […] told Politico […] Another official said it was a “disgrace.”

Thousands of likes, hundreds of ironic replies: “ All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others ”, “ Rules for you but not for me ”. The message is clear: while “the little ones” were sweating at their desks in the name of energy saving and ecological transition, the upper floors were still air-conditioned. Exactly the kind of hypocrisy that fuels distrust of the European institutions.

The reactions on social media were immediate. Source: X

Ursula von der Leyen’s Pony: When the Strict Protection of Wolves Suddenly Becomes Flexible

In September 2022, a wolf killed Dolly, Ursula von der Leyen’s 30-year-old pony, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Until then, the wolf was considered a “strictly protected” species at European level (Habitats Directive, Bern Convention). The Commission, led by von der Leyen, commissioned an “in-depth analysis” and proposed in December 2023 to reclassify the wolf from “strictly protected” to “protected”.

The official goal was: Greater flexibility for member states to protect livestock. And the goal that many perceived: Making it easier for wolves to be shot. Von der Leyen herself said that “the concentration of wolf packs in certain areas has become a real danger to livestock and potentially to humans”.

The proposal however only came after her own pony died. Before this personal incident, the Commission still considered in 2022 that a reduction in protection status was not scientifically justified. After Dolly, the tone notably changed. It is an obvious double standard: Strict protection of biodiversity… until the animal actually intrudes in the life of the Commission’s top official.

And the Cows Are No Longer Allowed Water?

In the same spirit of bureaucratization of heat waves and “green” environmental standards, we find absurd situations on the ground. As reported by the French media on June 27, in the midst of the ongoing heat wave, farmers in Ariège were denied access to pastures with access to water for administrative and health reasons (applicable to cows not vaccinated against Lumpy Skin Disease, LSD). The result: thirsty cows, in extreme water stress, when temperatures exceed 40 °C. It is not exactly “Ursula von der Leyen preventing cows from drinking”, but rather the result of an inflexible normative framework, supported by the European Commission and the dogmas of the ecological transition, which sometimes takes precedence over common sense and the immediate well-being of the animals.

The Common Denominator: Rules for Others, Exceptions for Oneself

We find the same pattern repeatedly:

Advocating energy savings and turning down the air conditioning for citizens and civil servants, but maintaining it for commissioners and leave ministerial cars idling during government meetings.
Strict protection of wolves… except when it concerns the chairman’s pony.
Strict environmental standards that could deprive cows of water in the middle of a heat wave.

This is the classic double standard: elites preach climate austerity, nature protection, and reduction of privileges for citizens and farmers, but give themselves (or receive) free passes when it affects them personally.

The heat wave of June 2026 does not demonstrate anything new. It has simply once again made visible the gap between the official discourse and the reality of power – and the reactions to X show that more and more people are no longer being fooled.