The Italian State is a civil party in the criminal process renamed Qatargate. This is, in summary, the request of the motion presented yesterday in the Chamber of Deputies with the first signatory Tommaso Foti, leader of the group in the Chamber of Brethren of Italy. The motion proposes that the Italian Government “support any useful initiative to fight corruption” in the competent European offices, to constitute a civil party in the process of “safeguarding and protecting the image of Italy in the international context”, as well as updating Parliament on the evolution of the question. But what is the Qatargate scandal? It all started on December 9, 2022, when the Belgian judiciary ordered 16 searches at 14 different addresses as part of an investigation, launched in mid-July, into an alleged criminal organization infiltrated the European Parliament and suspected of influencing EU policy. . Among those detained are: Antonio Panzeri, former deputy of the Democratic Party from 2004 to 2019 and then transferred to Article 1, the trade unionist Luca Visentini, later released, Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant to the deputy of the PD Antonio Cozzolino, Niccolò Figà- Talamanca, secretary general of the NGO “Peace without justice” founded by Emma Bonino in 1993 and Eva Kaili, vice-president of the European Parliament, already active in the group of European Socialists and Democrats and companion of Giorgi.
According to the reconstructions, Kaili herself was found in possession of €750,000 in cash, of which €600,000 was hidden in a cart that her father, Alexandros Kaili, tried to take from the Sofitel hotel on Place Jourdan in Brussels before being stopped by the police and another 150,000 euros found in the apartment that the former vice-president of the European Parliament shared with his partner. Another 600,000 euros were found in Panzeri’s home. The total would amount to 1.5 million euros. The charge is corruption, money laundering and criminal association.
According to the investigators, the corruptors would be Qatar and Morocco. The Doha government would be interested in shielding its leadership in the export of liquefied natural gas and obfuscating criticism of the conditions of workers involved in the construction of stadiums for the World Cup. Morocco would have taken advantage of the migrants as an instrument of pressure on the European Union to obtain, in exchange, greater granting of visas to Moroccan citizens, but it would also have tried to have Western Sahara recognized as a region under its sovereignty to continue mining phosphates.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
