It’s time to stop referring to Thorbjørn Jagland as a naïve peacemaker who only wanted to do good. The latest revelations from the Council of Europe paint a picture of a man who has deliberately misled the public.
When a top politician has secret meetings with a convicted sex offender and allows himself to be accommodated in his luxury apartments without entering it in official registers, it is no longer a question of bad luck. It is a case of calculated deception.
The Council of Europe now confirms what many have feared. Jeffrey Epstein was a guest at Jagland’s official residence in Strasbourg at least twice. There is no trace of these meetings in Jagland’s official diary. You don’t forget to enter the visit of an American billionaire in your diary by mistake. They fail to record it because they know that the contact cannot stand the light of day. When Jagland has also lived privately in Epstein’s apartments in Paris and New York while on official business, the scandal is complete.
He saved hotel expenses for the Council of Europe by staying for free with a man who had already been convicted of buying sex from a minor in 2008.
It is appalling that the man who was supposed to be the guardian of human rights in Europe chose to socialise with a man who systematically violated them in the worst possible way. Jagland knew perfectly well who Epstein was. The judgement was public knowledge. Yet he chose luxury and access to Epstein’s network over moral integrity. The fact that the Council of Europe now has to confirm that Jagland received thorough training in the rules on gifts and hospitality makes the case even more embarrassing. He knew about the rules, but chose to ignore them.
This adds to the series of disastrous judgements that have characterised Jagland’s entire career. We’re talking about the man who, in 1997, asked his own cabinet question with the infamous 36.9 requirement. He brought down his own government based on a self-imposed ultimatum that nobody asked for and nobody understood. It testified to a total lack of political vision, which unfortunately was only the beginning.
As head of the Nobel Committee, he managed the feat of devaluing the Peace Prize’s international reputation. Awarding the prize to Barack Obama before the president had even had time to unpack in the White House remains one of the prize’s most embarrassing moments. He later forced the award through to the EU at a time when the union was in deep crisis.
It seemed that Jagland was more concerned with ingratiating himself with the international elite than administering Alfred Nobel’s will.
In the Council of Europe, he continued to be evasive towards authoritarian forces. He was central to the process of restoring Russia’s voting rights in the Council of Europe after the annexation of Crimea. While Ukrainians were dying in the trenches, Jagland was committed to dialogue with the regime in Moscow. History has shown us where that line of dialogue led.
Now he’s trying to buy time via his lawyer and announcing a statement later. It’s the oldest trick in the book. He’s hoping the storm will abate, so he can come up with a ready-made explanation that obscures the facts. But the facts speak for themselves. He has had secret meetings. He has stayed for free with an abuser. He has kept the information hidden from his employer and from the public.
Thorbjørn Jagland has throughout his career had a special ability to fall upwards. After each failure, he has been given a fancier title and a higher salary. Now he’s reached the top of the ladder, and the fall is brutal. His legacy will not be about peace work or European unity. It will be about a man so blinded by power and money that he sold his soul to a paedophile billionaire in order to get into good company.
It’s not just sad. It’s unforgivable.