A year ago, the Belgian police uncovered the largest case of corruption in the history of the European institutions. There were famous scandals, such as the fall of the Santer Commission in 1999. Or the case, in 2012, of John DalliMaltese Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, who was resigned suddenly for a case of influence peddling with a tobacco company. But this was different. He Qatargate It was an unprecedented plot, of enormous proportions. A bribery networkdeceptions, a lobby illegal promoted by MEPs and former MEPs in the pay of Qatar o Morocco. A network with hundreds of thousands of euros in briefcases, flats bought at random, trips around the globe, manipulation of human rights dossiers and espionage services from half a dozen countries active throughout the continent. A spectacular case led by the country’s star judge, the indomitable Michel Claise.
The problem is that, 12 months later, there is no defendant in prison, the star judge has had to step aside due to a very ugly conflict of interest, the federal prosecutor who was handling the dossier, Raphael Malagnini, he has looked for another job. Calls for the arrest of a Qatari minister and a Moroccan diplomat have vanished. And there are Belgian politicians who have clearly escaped investigation because of their connections, even though there is a gigantic mountain of evidence piled up.
A year later, the process is stalled and there is a civil war between lawyers and institutions, but also the media, which are beginning to throw things at each other. For some it is still a brutal case of interference, bribery or at the very least lobby irregular. For others, these are violations of the rights of presumed innocent people with non-respected immunity that can end in ridicule for local authorities and a series of convictions for tax evasion at most. That there were people working for the interests of foreign powers seems beyond doubt. Whether this is different from what is usually done remains to be determined. The interrogations or seized messages show a group scamming governments such as those mentioned or those of Mauritania taking advantage of “the little knowledge they have of how the European Parliament works”.
There is no date for a process nor is it expected soon. The magistrate had to recuse himself after it was learned that his son had business with the son of a MEP linked in every possible way to the plot (and whose ex-husband is now married to the Belgian Foreign Minister), but that he has not even been called to testify only once. Not even when the police found almost 300,000 euros in an apartment that she and her son own but her suspicious son. Not even when she was the first person the detainees called. Incredible is an understatement.
The alleged ringleader, Antonio Panzeri, has confessed to having received millions and, taking advantage of the repentant legislation, has reduced his sentence in exchange for collaborating. The rest are at home, with or without electronic bracelets. And the most famous, Eva Kaili, has returned to the European Parliament, although stripped of her position as vice president and expelled from the socialists. Everything smells rotten. Belgium He can’t afford another fiasco and ridicule. But the shortcomings in the country that claims to be a paradise of guarantees cry out to heaven. It’s like that here.