From Qatargate to Huawei, the ongoing maxi-investigations in Brussels

Three alleged scandals and no end in sight. From the cash-filled suitcases of Qatargate to pro-Russian influence networks and the shadow of Huawei: there are several maxi-investigations that have shaken European politics in the last three years, bringing prominent Italian names into the net of the Belgian justice.

QATARGATE - At dawn on 9 December 2022, the police raid at the home of the former vice-president of the EU Parliament Eva Kaili and her companion Francesco Giorgi deflagrated the case that promised to reshape European power: sweeping searches, images of suitcases full of banknotes that in a few hours went around the world. At the centre of the alleged corrupt network is the former socialist MEP Antonio Panzeri, believed to be the director of the alleged plot with Qatar and Morocco. Orchestrating the early stages of the investigation was Judge Michel Claise, who was then forced to leave due to a suspected conflict of interest involving his son. Three years later, the investigation - which also involved the Dem Andrea Cozzolino - has turned into a matryoshka doll with no outcome: the methods of Belgian justice have themselves ended up under investigation, no indictment and only one chapter closed, that of Panzeri - thanks to a turncoat pact - although today he is under investigation in Milan for aggravated slander. In the next few hours there will be a new step: the first vote of the Euro Chamber on the lifting of the immunity of the PD MEPs Elisabetta Gualmini and Alessandra Moretti.

MOSCAGATE - In a Europarliament already stretched to its limits in the run-up to the European elections between April and June 2024, the Belgian police raided again following the thread of an investigation into suspected meddling and corruption in favour of the Kremlin that swept up AfD ultranationalist Maximilian Krah. Also in the crosshairs is his former right-hand man, Frenchman Guillaume Pradoura, later assistant to the sovereignist former Dutch MEP Marcel De Graaff. The accusations - which arose from reports by the Czech 007 - revolve around the Voice of Europe platform, now blacked out across the continent. And the case initially also touched on a number of Italian MEPs, but no charges were later formalised against them.