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Comment by bangkoksbest | Hacker News Reader

Who could possibly care about that? She's attending meetings and events in professional and political capacity as the Commission President, it's not personal holiday time. The climate cannot possibly suffer some meaningfully negatively impact from her transportation means between events, whereas there could be meaningfully positive impacts from her maximizing presence in certain events.

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It's difficult to convince people to change their habits when the person delivering the message is doing the complete opposite.

But she's the Commission President—an executive position for a very complex and powerful international institution. If she were an MEP, then fine, I could accept that an MEP does not have anywhere the representative power such that their time could be so important as to need chartered flights... But I do not accept that for major executive operating in that capacity should be beholden to mere messaging politics. You cannot predict the traffic situation ahead of time, whereas you know to the very minute what any flight times are, which makes them vital for planning at that level.

Why would you want the Executive leader of the EU risking event and meeting timings when she's representing almost the entire continent all in order to "deliver a message"? Should the US president take a taxi when going from DC to New York?

In any case the message is clearly not dependent on this since basically only the AfD and British tabloids are feigning outrage over this.

Ideally, they're servants of the public/people. Not modern kings/queens, which is what most people see them as (even if temporary ones). So yes, they should be setting examples.

>You cannot predict the traffic situation ahead of time, whereas you know to the very minute what any flight times are, which makes them vital for planning at that level.

That's a bit of a red herring. Air travel is often disrupted, probably as much as trains.

>In any case the message is clearly not dependent on this since basically only the AfD and British tabloids are feigning outrage over this.

Well we are discussing it here and this is definitely no the Daily Mail.

People who don’t want to change their habits will take any reason not to.

Which is perhaps all the more reason for spokespeople to act beyond reproach rather than an excuse to justify a 60km flight.

It’s hopeless. It boils down to “I am not going to listen to you because you don’t follow the arbitrary standards I just set, and that I am going to redefine if I feel like it”. It’s the same mental gymnastics as brexiteers and trumpists who justify their behaviour because Londoners and liberals are mean to them.

Besides, she is not a spokesperson. She is the head of the civil service.

A 60km flight is terrible, no doubt about that. However, had it been 500, you’d have heard the exact same complaints.

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