The European Parliament faces the biggest corruption case in its history, originating in Qatar and final destination at the top of the institution. In full disapproval of the circumstances that made possible FIFA’s decision that the emirate should be in charge of hosting this year’s World Cup, regardless of its record on human rights, and at the same time that suspicions about UEFA’s wide sleeve in controlling the economic ‘fair play’ against PSG, also under Qatari control, the shadow of the venality of the already dismissed vice-president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, and her entourage. Once again, an opulent autocracy is pointed out for interfering, not only in the course of business in the private sphere or in facilitating them by distributing the appropriate commissions among public officials, but also in the functioning of national and international political institutions and in the formation of opinion states.
But many other governments take advantage of the increasingly larger shadow areas where the promoters of all kinds of management move freely. It would be an oversimplification to point to Qatar as the great perpetrator of this type of interference. Russia has been under suspicion of repeated interference for years in the politics of other states through the panoply of resources derived from the universalization of social networks or the very classic distribution of gifts to achieve a chorus of friendly voices. Little doubt remains of Russian behavior when one of the most influential members of Vladimir Putin’s closest circle, Evgeny Prigozhin, owner of the wagner groupa mercenary company, recognized in November Russian meddling in the campaign of the last legislative elections in the United States, a continuation of the distortion mechanisms used in 2016 and in 2020 in support of Donald Trump.
There is in all these cases, be it in the form of gross corruption, be it in the form of misinformation intoxication, a increasing factor of vulnerability of democracies. According to a solvent study carried out in 2019 by the University of Oxford, there are seven states that practice interference to a greater extent: China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The conclusion of the work could not be more worrying: computer propaganda, ‘trolls’ and other tools are “systemic challenges to democracy”, no less immoral and illegal but still more dangerous and uncontrollable than the transfer of bags of money practiced by Kaili. To which it should be added that there is a direct relationship between the growing rise of the extreme right and the multiplication of online strategies to induce a change in electoral behavior in societies that in the last 15 years have chained one crisis after another.
The rapid reaction of the European Parliament In view of the investigations by the Belgian police, it should not remain in the measures to remove those investigated, but should establish a permanent firewall system to prevent the actions of other unscrupulous people from escaping its control in the future and to detect other possible ones. voices in the European Parliament sponsored by outside interests. The resolution approved on March 9 of this year, aimed at avoiding external intervention and destabilization maneuvers, commits the member states, without whose assistance in the form of financing it is not possible to anticipate the intruders, all those who want to alter the transparent functioning of the institutions. Without the provision of necessary means Qatar, Russia and other actors are left little less than clear the way to erode democracy at the state and European level.