One week before the opening of the European election (the Dutch vote on Thursday), cases of foreign interference in the European Union are coming back to the forefront with searches carried out by the police in the premises of the European Parliament. This concerns the case of the pro-Russian website “Voice of Europe” suspected of making propaganda in favor of the Kremlin and even of paying MEPs to do so. A parliamentary aide is in the crosshairs and is putting far-right German MP Maximilian Krah back in the spotlight.
1 min
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet
The Belgian federal police raided the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday May 29. At the same time, the French police also carried out a search of Parliament, but this time at the Strasbourg headquarters. Each time, it was the offices of Marcel de Graaf, a Dutch MEP (Forum voor Democratie, far-right).
The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office suspects his parliamentary assistant, Guillaume Padoura, of having “ play an important role » in the Voice of Europe case. He had previously been the parliamentary assistant to a French MEP from the National Rally (Nicolas Bay), but he also and above all worked for the German Maximilian Krah.
Another parliamentary assistant of this MEP from the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland), the far-right party, is currently behind bars in Germany on suspicion of espionage for the benefit of China, but in the Voice of Europe affair , it is indeed pro-Russian interference that we are talking about.
The Belgian Prime Minister revealed when the affair broke out that Voice of Europe was a Trojan horse intended to elect candidates favorable to Russia.
Read alsoBelgian justice seized of case of Russian interference in the European Parliament