Thanks to the shenanigans of our blessed MEPs, the term "Spitzenkandidaten" is now widely translated as meaning "I spit on your candidate".
But European Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker, has hit back with his own game of Spitzenshenanigansdidaten", loosely translated as "I spit on your shenanigans".
In fact it was the new Slovenian PM who first blew a gasket when MEPs pushed their luck with their joyously juvenile European Parliament game of "You-spit-on-my-candidate-and-I'll-spit-on-yours.
They used their democratic devilishness to dismiss the Slovenian Commissioner-designate as "Not very clever". Other available headings under which the unworthy can be rebuffed by MEPs include: "Too clever by half"; "Wrong political party"; "Insignificant political party"; "Looks a bit dodgy" and "Might be taking the piss out of us".
Anyway, they bagged themselves a Slovenian trophy, and that would have been sort of okay, had they not started preening their feathers in public. The big mistake was for puffed-up MEPs in the two main centre-left and centre-right parties to declare that they would accept no replacement other than a certain Tanja Fajon who, as luck has it, is already an MEP and is therefore, obviously, the best thing since sliced pain. Any other nomination from the Slovenian government would be deemed "unreasonable", said the MEPs.
Classic case of red rag to bull, and the Slovenian Premier responded with a severe case of "Stuffenzekandidaten", vaguely translated as "I stuff your candidate". He then displayed wit, wisdom and a sense of mischief by despatching to Brussels Violeta Bulc, whose credentials include not being the Tanja Fajon.
Mr Juncker, not happy about being jerked around too much like a puppet by the two biggest parties in the European Parliament, also enjoyed the jape because, having met Violeta, he let it be known that he got on with her like a house on fire, which would be no sweat for Violeta, thanks to her other credentials as a certificated fire-walker.
Other areas in which she leaves all the other Commissioners in the shade include having been a basketball star in her youth; being a black belt in taekwondo, being a self-defence teacher, having studied as a shaman, and, crucially, holding a sweeping belief in connecting directly through portals, from vertical to horizontal, from static to dynamic, from line to circle, from plan to model, from organisation to movement, from vision to mission.
No, me neither, but the last bit is all direct quotes so let's give the lady a chance. She believes in holistic power and systemic thinking. In a paradigm-shifty kind of way. In a recent broadcast to her growing band of followers, she opined that "experience shows that doing one thing after another is not enough... the future is changing daily".
And in a declaration which could have been aimed directly at our MEPs she said we must find brave new ways of cooperating, and we must take bold new steps into a "no structure, no visions, no goals" world. Instead, we should "go and set ourselves a mission to achieve some higher good." What's not to like? How this applies to the EU Commission transport and space portfolio is not quite clear but she will certainly be more interested in exploring the possibilities of inter-planetary travel than funding the Mulhouse-Basel motorway extension.
MEPs will feel personally insulted when they learn that Violeta is against "negative ego-centric behaviour", insisting that we must ovecome this power lust and realise that well-being is the higher goal.
They may also dislike being told to "go in for holistic decision-making and thus improve their impact on the co-creation of daily life and the future".
She believes triangles of power can be replaced by polygons of purpose and her watchwords are inspiration; innovation and intuition. Innovative eco-systems are a speciality, as are systemic thinking and a global mindset.
Another plus, much welcomed by Jean-Claude Juncker, is that she's only been in politics a handful of weeks: the thinking goes that there are enough grey politicians in the Commission team already and why not get someone in with a new vision; someone off-the-wall, outside-the-envelope and open to new ideas.
Best of all, in the midst of an online explanation about her experience of seeing environments shift once mindsets shift, she interrupted herself to say: " People can argue that that's bollocks and just the philosophy of a dreamer, but come and join us".
Violeta, please, please use exactly that phrase to MEPs during your confirmation hearing, which will be the most watched in the admittedly short history of Commission confirmation hearings.
And make sure MEPs are aware that you are "interested in things that lie beyond human reason". Such as MEPs.
They'll hate it so much they'll love it, and so will the rest of us.
And don't worry, you won't get rejected - they wouldn't dare. You tick plenty of boxes, and most of them are ones nobody knew existed.
The EU needs a fresh approach and you, Violeta, most emphatically, are it.
But European Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker, has hit back with his own game of Spitzenshenanigansdidaten", loosely translated as "I spit on your shenanigans".
In fact it was the new Slovenian PM who first blew a gasket when MEPs pushed their luck with their joyously juvenile European Parliament game of "You-spit-on-my-candidate-and-I'll-spit-on-yours.
They used their democratic devilishness to dismiss the Slovenian Commissioner-designate as "Not very clever". Other available headings under which the unworthy can be rebuffed by MEPs include: "Too clever by half"; "Wrong political party"; "Insignificant political party"; "Looks a bit dodgy" and "Might be taking the piss out of us".
Anyway, they bagged themselves a Slovenian trophy, and that would have been sort of okay, had they not started preening their feathers in public. The big mistake was for puffed-up MEPs in the two main centre-left and centre-right parties to declare that they would accept no replacement other than a certain Tanja Fajon who, as luck has it, is already an MEP and is therefore, obviously, the best thing since sliced pain. Any other nomination from the Slovenian government would be deemed "unreasonable", said the MEPs.
Classic case of red rag to bull, and the Slovenian Premier responded with a severe case of "Stuffenzekandidaten", vaguely translated as "I stuff your candidate". He then displayed wit, wisdom and a sense of mischief by despatching to Brussels Violeta Bulc, whose credentials include not being the Tanja Fajon.
Mr Juncker, not happy about being jerked around too much like a puppet by the two biggest parties in the European Parliament, also enjoyed the jape because, having met Violeta, he let it be known that he got on with her like a house on fire, which would be no sweat for Violeta, thanks to her other credentials as a certificated fire-walker.
Other areas in which she leaves all the other Commissioners in the shade include having been a basketball star in her youth; being a black belt in taekwondo, being a self-defence teacher, having studied as a shaman, and, crucially, holding a sweeping belief in connecting directly through portals, from vertical to horizontal, from static to dynamic, from line to circle, from plan to model, from organisation to movement, from vision to mission.
No, me neither, but the last bit is all direct quotes so let's give the lady a chance. She believes in holistic power and systemic thinking. In a paradigm-shifty kind of way. In a recent broadcast to her growing band of followers, she opined that "experience shows that doing one thing after another is not enough... the future is changing daily".
And in a declaration which could have been aimed directly at our MEPs she said we must find brave new ways of cooperating, and we must take bold new steps into a "no structure, no visions, no goals" world. Instead, we should "go and set ourselves a mission to achieve some higher good." What's not to like? How this applies to the EU Commission transport and space portfolio is not quite clear but she will certainly be more interested in exploring the possibilities of inter-planetary travel than funding the Mulhouse-Basel motorway extension.
MEPs will feel personally insulted when they learn that Violeta is against "negative ego-centric behaviour", insisting that we must ovecome this power lust and realise that well-being is the higher goal.
They may also dislike being told to "go in for holistic decision-making and thus improve their impact on the co-creation of daily life and the future".
She believes triangles of power can be replaced by polygons of purpose and her watchwords are inspiration; innovation and intuition. Innovative eco-systems are a speciality, as are systemic thinking and a global mindset.
Another plus, much welcomed by Jean-Claude Juncker, is that she's only been in politics a handful of weeks: the thinking goes that there are enough grey politicians in the Commission team already and why not get someone in with a new vision; someone off-the-wall, outside-the-envelope and open to new ideas.
Best of all, in the midst of an online explanation about her experience of seeing environments shift once mindsets shift, she interrupted herself to say: " People can argue that that's bollocks and just the philosophy of a dreamer, but come and join us".
Violeta, please, please use exactly that phrase to MEPs during your confirmation hearing, which will be the most watched in the admittedly short history of Commission confirmation hearings.
And make sure MEPs are aware that you are "interested in things that lie beyond human reason". Such as MEPs.
They'll hate it so much they'll love it, and so will the rest of us.
And don't worry, you won't get rejected - they wouldn't dare. You tick plenty of boxes, and most of them are ones nobody knew existed.
The EU needs a fresh approach and you, Violeta, most emphatically, are it.
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