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Tweets of the Week: Davos, Elmar Brok, and the 10 year challenge

By Amanda Lee, Evan Lamos and Jennifer Baker | EURACTIV.com

25-01-2019 (updated: 31-01-2019 )

This week Davos bling continues to shock, fingers are pointed at Elmar Brok, and 10 years meme makes us all take stock. This episode is supported by FleishmanHillard.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. So many Davos sessions, so little time.

Lots of the big hitters, however, weren’t there this year. No Trump, no Macron, no Theresa May. I guess she has other things to do.

But Stephen Kelly reported that 1500 private jets flew in. That’s up 50% on last year. How does this help climate change, he asked. Saying that the political elite are out of touch.

Yeah, quite a lot of people noticed that Stephen.

Darren McCaffrey’s favourite quote was from J.P. Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon. Davos is where billionaires go to tell millionaires how the middle class feels.

New Brazilian president Bolsonaro was there, but cancelled his press conference at the last minute. Bruno Marcorio says it’s the first time that’s happened at the World Economic Forum.

Vanessa Fuhrmans shared this, the most Davos pic ever.

And Navid Hedayati‏ described the attendees as a “motley crew of crooks, plutocrats, and swindlers” but corrected that to add psychopathic war criminal to the list when he discovered Tony Blair was there.

Speaking of swindling. You couldn’t pay AmericanEUDude to visit the European Parliament. But it turns out you could pay Elmar Brok.

The Veteran MEP is accused of charging constituents €150 to visit him at the Parliament while also receiving a subsidy for the visits in an article by Ryan Heath.

Brok is apparently asking tax advisers to check whether he was indeed double dipping, reported Jack Parrock. Couldn’t he check himself?

Who needs Russian bots, when you have Elmar Brok undermining trust in institutions asked a Twitter user from Berlin.

While James Crisp predicted Brokxit.

Martini Seltzermayr reckons this Christmas every child will be demanding the “Tickle Me Elmar” toy.

Step in satire account General Boles.

You really can’t unsee that.

And finally, it was supposed to be a jolly wheeze, slash way for Facebook to train its facial recognition AI. But on Twitter the 10 year challenge became an opportunity for people to comment on the state of the planet.

From coral reefs.

To the rainforests.

Ice-caps.

To the middle east.

Of course here in Brussels, the European Commission comms team never met a bandwagon they didn’t want to jump on. And reminded us all who we need to thank for lower phone charges.

And the single currency.

My personal favourite is Bruxelles’ very own Palais de Justice. 10 years, so little change.

This week we are supported by FleishmanHillard who are launching their new ‘Hemicycle Views’ video series featuring MEPs who share their point of view.

That’s it for this week join us again next week by following the hashtag #EUTweets.

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