Oh No! With EU Corruption Scandal Revealed, Concern That Right-Populists May Talk About it to Voters

Leader of French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) and candidate for the French
WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

A Finnish researcher has expressed concerns that the ongoing European Union corruption scandal that led to several prominent arrests may be used as “fuel” for EU-sceptical populist parties.

Finnish doctoral researcher Pekka Pohjankoski suggested that the ongoing corruption scandal, which saw European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, a Greek left-wing MEP, arrested and charged with illegal lobbying for the state of Qatar, could be taken advantage of by populists.

Kaili is one of four people arrested and charged on corruption and money laundering allegations and participating in a criminal organisation. Belgian police have reported recovering large volumes of cash, including a suitcase packed with money in the course of raids this week.

“These are accusations that have never really been heard before in the history of the EU institutions to such an extent, that many people at the very heart of EU legislation are involved in this kind of thing,” Pohjankoski told broadcaster Yle.

“Although Parliament’s ability to act is likely to be preserved, the image damage is, of course, a massive disadvantage. Populist political actors will certainly seize it and use it as fuel,” he added.

Several left-wing politicians have stepped down in the past couple of days in relation to the allegations. Arrested Greek leftist Kaili insists she is innocent, and in any case was just following orders.

While it appears that corruption may have been going on unreported in Brussels, the European Union has never been shy about accusing others of corruption itself. Hungary is one of the countries the European Parliament has frequently clashed with, with the parliament voting that the country was not a functioning democracy earlier this year in September.

This week, conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban mocked the corruption allegations against his country by the European Parliament in the wake of the corruption scandal on Twitter.

Orban posted a meme of several men laughing with the caption “and then they said the [European Parliament] is seriously concerned about corruption in Hungary.”

Populist former French presidential candidate and member of the French parliament for the National Rally (RN) Marine Le Pen also slammed the European Union last Friday, calling the EU an “empire” and comparing its current course to the former Soviet Union (USSR).

“Merchant and ultra-liberal empire, materialist and atheist, technocratic and ideological empire, the European Union sees our continent as a market whose extension is without limit,” Le Pen said and added, “In this, it completely shares one of the defining characteristics of empires.”

Le Pen also remarked that the European Union had “dragged us through the mud” with allegations of corruption in the past, all the while what she sardonically called “the so-called ‘good side'” allegedly took cash. “What a shame!” the populist leader noted.

In the UK, former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage commented on the corruption scandal saying, “Belgian press say it’s Qatari money, it’s cash for lobbying — we don’t yet know the truth. What we do know is it’s a huge, massive scandal; what we do know is, because I was there for nearly 21 years, Brussels runs on a sea of total corruption.”

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

 

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