By One of the hottest stories of the last couple of months has been Qatargate, the corruption scandal that “shook the European Parliament and rocked the European institutions” – at least this has been the central thought in different publications and official statements. Weeks passed by, raids were conducted and the right-leaning representatives of the media were all ecstatic about the fact that the European left just could not do the simple, smallest thing: say no.
Eva Kaili, Marc Tarabella and the other accomplices seemingly put a serious dent into socialist/leftist European Parliament election campaigns before they could have begun at all and in the first phase of the investigation, it seemed that the more authorities find, simply the more questions arise.
Then, around a month ago, news hit that the main suspects in the wrongdoings with Qatar and Morocco, Tarabella and Kaili seek to be released into house arrest. Kaili went so far as to state that she needs to be back at work as soon as it can be done. And it could.
So even acceptance and storage of several millions of euros, undisclosed, cannot keep corrupt politicians out of office.
Another great example of the futile insistence of due diligence is Béla Kovács, who, after having worked for nine years as a member of the European Parliament, at least five of which he spent spying for Russia according to the sentence of the Hungarian Curia (supreme court), still gets what he allegedly deserves: thousands of euros as pension for his work as MEP, allegedly through a Kazakh bank account.
Pairing these examples up with the way the European Parliament communicates towards governments it deems subpar when it comes to rule of law, it is obvious that there is some work for it to be done on its very self. Not that Kaili, Tarabella, Kovács, or József Szájer (who was placed into custody for the possession of hard drugs after escaping an orgy) will be remembered by the public in five or ten years. It would be for its own good.
Very confrontative times are coming and – at least this should be known by politicians – if you do not have your story and your life straight (that is, not everything works respecting the rules the EP itself agreed upon), it can be detrimental if not destructive on any given campaign or policy.
And a credibility crisis on the level of international relations is the last thing the European Union wants while it is sharpening its teeth on Big Tech, Russia and China.
