In a spectacular vanity project, the members of the European Parliament and their bureaucrats are spending up to €1.5m of taxpayers’ money to give their assembly chamber a one-night-only make-over for the broadcast of the election results on Sunday evening.
The money will be spent on giant screens, lighting and other equipment including the installation of outside electrical generators to be used “in case of short circuits.”
A separate television broadcast set, which officials say will stay in place until December, will cost a further €2m.
The cost of lighting alone for the one night event will be €800,000, part of a total figure of €3.5m for the one-night makeover of the parliamentary chamber plus the temporary television broadcast set.
Workmen have built positions for what parliament staff call “a significant number of TV channels.” However, even vastly rich international broadcasters such as Sky News and CNN will be offered all the taxpayer-funded multi-million euro facilities for free by the parliament: “They don’t pay,” a spokesman for the parliament told Breitbart News.
There will also be free facilities laid on for what a spokesman says will be “hundreds” of other news media, while presentation of results will be given on big screens set up around the parliament. There are set-ups built for press conferences and live on-screen connections to politicians and commentators throughout the parliament.
UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall said: “This is a profligate waste of taxpayers’ money, to think that it is costing €1.5m for a one night make-over is just outrageous. And LED lighting at €800,000 – somebody is making huge money here – and the ordinary punter is the loser.”
“The EU spending so much on propaganda to make the EU seem palatable is bad enough, but this attitude of throwing away peoples’ money really takes the biscuit.”