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The sewers of sleaze running through the EU's institutions are an embarrassment... and a disgrace - the surprising thing about its Qatar scandal is anybody is pretending to be surprised
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Until a few days ago, there were few more striking advertisements for European democracy than the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Eva Kaili.All her life the statuesque 44-year-old had known nothing but success. The youngest member of the city council in Thessaloniki, the youngest candidate for the Greek Parliament, a news presenter on Greece’s oldest private TV channel, a star of the centre-left Pasok party . . . nothing seemed beyond her. At the beginning of this year, Kaili reached a new peak. Already a member of the European Parliament, she was elected as one of its Vice Presidents. She was the golden girl of Brussels, hailed as ‘alluring’, ‘bold’ and ‘outspoken’, at ease on both the floor of a nightclub and the debating chamber.
And then, this week, it all came crashing down, as Belgian prosecutors blew open an alleged conspiracy by World Cup hosts Qatar to buy influence at the European Parliament. In a series of raids, they seized €150,000 in Kaili’s flat, a further €600,000 in the home of the former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Pancheri, and ‘several hundred thousand euros’ in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel. In a twist too glorious for fiction, the suitcase allegedly belonged to Kaili’s father, who had reportedly tried to flee the local Sofitel with it after being tipped off about the raids. As for his glamorous daughter, she has been arrested and charged with ‘participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption’. Kaili has denied the allegations, and people are innocent until they are proven guilty. But when you look back at Kaili’s record, you can see why there have long been suspicions. Only last month, she had the gall to tell the European Parliament that critics of Qatar’s World Cup were ‘bullying’ the oil-rich Arab state. Related: World Cup: 2022-12-13 What are the Qatar bribery allegations rocking European Parliament? World Cup: 2022-12-08 Kuwait deports 3,000 transgender and female-impersonating men World Cup: 2022-12-04 Nation Relieved To No Longer Have To Pretend To Like Soccer Posted by: Skidmark 2022-12-15 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=652433 |