The European Parliament has this afternoon almost unanimously jumped into the breach for the preservation of the word ‘Christmas’. In a proposal on inclusive language, which has since been withdrawn, European Commissioner Helena Dalli (equal opportunities) had wanted to ban the use of words such as ‘Christmas’ and ‘Christmas party’.
In her inclusive world, that should have been a ‘vacation’. So: ‘I get a lot of people on holiday’ instead of ‘I get a lot of people at Christmas’.
Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission who replaced his Maltese colleague during the debate, received more Christmas wishes than he may have had in the rest of his life. ‘Blessed Christmas,’ one MEP after another added teasingly to him.
Schinas himself did not bother for a second to save his colleague Dalli (59). He had written ‘an internal memorandum’, which ‘did not meet the quality standards’ and ‘has long since been withdrawn’. The chance that Dalli will get the plea back on the table soon seems small.
This immediately means that many other examples of what she believes to be ‘exclusive language use’ will simply be maintained. Roma will not become ‘East Slovaks of Roma origin’, a housewife will not be a ‘house person’, the use of ‘his’ or ‘her’ as possessive pronouns remains permitted. She also wanted to abolish ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’, as well as Madam or Mr. President. Another MP said teasingly: ,,I’ll just say ‘chair’ from now on. Isn’t that what she wants?”
Journalists in Brussels should even have stopped writing ‘Berlin, Rome and Paris’, because that is not inclusive enough, according to Dalli. “Berlin, Budapest and Vilnius” was better according to her.
‘Burn that note’
Ex-Communists and SGP members embraced each other in shared indignation. “This inclusive use of language excludes God, it tends to censor,” said Bert-Jan Ruissen. “This reminds me of the past. Burn that note and scatter the ashes in front of your headquarters,” said the ex-communist.
Incidentally, there was also criticism for EPP group leader Weber, who requested the debate. Shame on you for wasting our time with this. The climate, poverty, inflation, the war on our eastern border would have been better subjects.”
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