Right-wing reinforcement here or there, there are already signs that there may be scandal heroes in the European Parliament.
Examining 704 members of the European Parliament, a Dutch platform found that a quarter of the team had been accused of "irregular behavior, corruption, fraud or theft" at least once. It is no coincidence that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote the following in a post at the beginning of last year:
"If we continue like this, soon so many corrupt members of the European Parliament will be behind bars that they can form their own soccer team in prison."
The prime minister's comment was related to the case, which involves the payment of large sums of money and significant gifts, and which has been referred to as the Brussels corruption scandal ever since.
The consequences were serious, Italian Member of the European Parliament Andrea Cozzolino was arrested in Naples on the basis of a European arrest warrant, while criminal proceedings were initiated against Member of the European Parliament Marc Tarabella. Greek MEP Eva Kaili and her spouse and former MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri also faced the same charges. Eva Kaili, the most well-known face of the scandal, has already spent four months behind bars, but now faces a sentence of 5 to 15 years if she is finally found guilty.
But the more scandals you look for, the more you find.
In December of last year, representatives on "Santa's blacklist" were also gathered. What is striking is that on similar lists, right-wing representatives were mostly included on the list for spreading fake news.
This was the case, among others, of Christian Terhes from Romania, who said that the existence of transgender women represents the greatest danger for women. Not ranking the crimes, but plenty of leftists have been scandalized along accusations that can be considered less subjective.
In addition to the previously mentioned Brussels corruption scandal, Donald Tusk's former minister, Wlodzimierz Karpinski, was released from prison in November for accepting a one million euro bribe from a company applying for a garbage delivery contract.
He is already a representative of the European Parliament. Three socialists, one from the People's Party, one member of Renew marked by Guy Verhofstadt, and one left-wing representative were suspected of abuse of office and fraud.
The Irish representative of the Left party family, Mick Wallace, failed to announce, for example, that he pockets hundreds of euros a month as a "consultant" for wine bar businesses. Spanish representative Mónica Silvana González was sanctioned by the European Parliament in January because her assistants accused her of psychological harassment. 13 different harassment reports were made against the French representative of the Left, Anne-Sophie Pelletier. The case of the Greek Alexis Georgoulis dates back to an alleged rape that occurred in 2020, and is currently awaiting trial in Belgium.
A 2024 analysis by the Irish portal The Journal reveals that 23 of the members of the cycle were convicted by a court – not just an internal ethics investigation body – and the sentence ranged from fines to prison terms.
This would also produce two football teams.
Right-wing reinforcement here or there, there are already signs that there may be scandal heroes in the European Parliament.
The Italian far-left is already working to get the Italian activist serving his prison sentence in Budapest into the EP.
In a statement, the ultra-leftist political movement Hatalmat a Nép calls on its followers to vote for Ilaria Salis in the European elections in June - at the same time opening the activist's cell in Budapest prison.
What perhaps reveals more than anything else is the scandal of the President of the European Commission.
"Serious corruption scandal surrounding Ursula von der Leyen" - Origó wrote an article with this title a year ago about the European Commission's vaccine procurement scandal.
In March 2021, Ursula von der Leyen held preliminary negotiations with the head of Pfizer about the procurement of a vaccine against the coronavirus and practically discussed the details with the CEO of the pharmaceutical giant, Albert Bourla, via text message. An investigation was launched in January 2022 in connection with the approximately 35 billion euro business, but the staff of the President of the European Commission did not find the text messages in question. On January 11, 2023, the EP's Covid-19 committee decided to call on the chairman of the committee to appear before the European Parliament in connection with the procurement of vaccines under suspicious circumstances.
Later, however, the European Parliament, battered by the corruption scandals of recent months, decided to question Ursula von der Leyen behind closed doors "sometime in the future" regarding the dubious vaccine purchase.
The fact that Ursula von der Leyen's husband, Heiko von der Leyen, was appointed medical director of the American pharmaceutical company Orgenesis in December 2020 during the coronavirus epidemic only makes the story more spicy. As previously published in Magyar Nemzet, the company works closely with Pfizer, which is involved in the European Commission's vaccine procurement scandal.
Cover image: Ursula von der Leyen's scandal still unclear
Source: MTI/EPA/ANSA/Ciro Fusco
