A suitcase described as being “full of cash” has been seized by police as part of an investigation into EU corruption, which has seen a number of socialist MEPs forced to step down from their positions
Police in Belgium have reportedly seized hundreds of thousands of Euro in cash as part of an ongoing investigation into a corruption scandal that is now plaguing the EU, with officers being said to have recovered a suitcase “full of cash” as part of their investigation.
With the now-former Vice President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, said to have been put behind bars as part of the investigation, news of rampant corruption within the EU could not come at a worse time for Brussels, which has been actively trying to paint Hungary’s nationalist government as being a corrupt force that is trying to erode democracy.
Such a narrative has only become less and less convincing as time goes on, with Politico reporting that police have continued conducting raids on premises linked to various officials thought to be connected to criminality, which largely revolves around the alleged taking of bribes from a country widely said to be Islamist Qatar.
As part of such searches, €600,000 (~$630,000) from a private home, €150,000 (~$160,000) from Kaili’s apartment, and a suitcase in a Belgian hotel described as being “filled with cash” have all been seized.
Meanwhile, the socialist group in the European Parliament has allegedly been forced to ask a number of its MEPs to step back from their positions in various bodies, with those linked to the corruption scandal within the bloc having been overwhelmingly left-wing so far.
The Socialists & Democrats group, which represents one of the largest within the European Parliament, has reportedly seen a number of MEPs either voluntarily step back or suspend themselves from the group, with one Belgian MEP, Marc Tarabella, reportedly stepping aside after his house was raided by police.
Overall, six people have reportedly been arrested as part of the investigation — two of whom were subsequently released — while 19 private homes have been searched for evidence.
In the wake of the revelation that corruption is rampant within the upper echelons of Brussels, many within the EU were keen to distance both themselves and the bloc as a whole from wrongdoing.
For example, the parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola has alleged that “European Democracy is under attack” as a result of the revelations, with the bloc voting on Tuesday to dismiss Eva Kaili MEP from her position as vice president, despite the fact that the Greek politician denies being involved in bribery from Qatar.
However, none of these actions have saved the bloc from serious embarrassment, especially given its attacks on member state Hungary for corruption and accusing it of being being “no longer a democracy“.
With it now being revealed that the European Parliament itself has seemingly been harbouring serious corruption, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took to Twitter to openly mock the block for its repeated attacks on his country while hosting its own corruption.
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