The Golf Gate scandal that has rocked Ireland in recent days claims its first European victim: the European Commissioner for Trade, Phil Hogan, resigned this Wednesday, after it was learned that he skipped the restrictions due to COVID19 during a trip to Ireland this summer.

"It was increasingly clear that the controversy surrounding my recent visit to Ireland was becoming a distraction from my job as a commissioner and would affect my work in the months that followed," Hogan said in a lengthy farewell letter, after introducing his resignation to the president of the European Commission, Úrsula Von der Leyen, who asked him for an explanation days ago.

The Irish government has been asking for his head since it came to light that Hogan participated on 19 August in a gala dinner organized by the Irish Parliament's golf club, Oireachtas Golfing Society to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. 82 personalities from the Irish political world attended. The authorities had reduced to fifteen the maximum number of people who could gather in events organized in closed spaces the day before. Before, they were limited to fifty. The police decided to open an investigation and a number of senior officials were peppered, including the agriculture minister who has also been forced to resign.

As if this were not enough, a few days later, local media confirmed that the commissioner had traveled to several counties in Ireland that were confined, and where movements were restricted. The information was made public after it was learned that the commissioner had been stopped by the police for using his phone while driving. Hogan immediately apologized, gave explanations, but each version was different from the previous one and the information that contradicted his speech accumulated. Until it has been too much.

"I recognize and understand the devastating impact of COVID19 on individuals and families and I fully understand their pain and anger when they feel that those who exercise public service do not meet the standards expected of them," Hogan said in his resignation letter. Even so, he defends himself. "It is important to note that I have not broken any normal. As a public representative, I should have been more rigorous in my respect for the COVID regulations," acknowledges the Irishman.

It is unusual for a commissioner to resign. The most recent cases were truly serious.

The biggest scandal took place in 1999 when the executive of Luxembourgian Jacques Santer was forced to resign en bloc over corruption charges. Also due to corruption, Maltese commissioner John Dalli was forced to resign, during the second term of Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

Von der Leyen has accepted Hogan's decision and thanked the Irishman for his work. Now it will be Dublin who will have to put a new candidate on the table, who will have to take charge of one of the most complicated and loaded portfolios, with global trade in full contraction and Brexit just around the corner.

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  • Ireland
  • Ursula von der Leyen
  • European Comission
  • sports

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