And three! There was, under Nicolas Sarkozy, the scandal of shenanigans around the granting in 2010 of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar against the purchase of French military planes; then there is the exploitation of foreign workers on construction sites in Doha, with thousands of deaths as a result; there is now that of the elected members of the European Parliament bribed by Qatar to the tune of hundreds of thousands of euros, splashing the whole institution.
In a way, we must be grateful to the Qatari autocracy for shining such a bright light, albeit reluctantly, on the extremely intolerable tendency of our governments, with regard to the variable geometry defense of fundamental rights, to sweep their “democratic values” under the carpet of realpolitik.
None of this has stopped French President Emmanuel Macron — who has continued since coming to power to gleefully tighten France’s trade ties with dictatorships in the Arab-Sunni world like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -, to go to Doha on Wednesday to celebrate the France-Morocco semi-final. Eloquent contribution to the legitimization of an authoritarian state. However, he could have had the decency to stay away to encourage the Blues, given the abuses highlighted by the 2022 World Cup on the political and social levels. By wanting to be there absolutely, and by wanting to recover it politically, he spoils the celebration of a competition which is indeed captivating and somehow casts shadow on the fact that Morocco has become the first Arab country, to on the one hand, and African, on the other, to go so far.
Never has a World Cup escaped political considerations. That of Qatar all the more reason, which only made the sports washing practiced by his government. In this case, the accumulation of injustices and scandals proven during this Soccer World Cup, held under the influence of a rapacious and petty FIFA, will necessarily have shaken consciences and opened eyes.
The corruption scandal that has just broken out in the European Parliament, and therefore in the face of the European Union (EU), is major: seizure of 1.5 million euros in cash, imprisonment of a vice-president of the Parliament , Greek socialist Eva Kaili, and a former MEP now in charge of an NGO brazenly called Fight Impunity. They are accused of having belonged to a “criminal organization” aiming to “influence the decisions” of the EU for the benefit of the emirate – whose geopolitical weight is proportional to its immense gas resources. It’s the power of money in all its horror. What is 1.5 million euros for a government that has engulfed 150 billion in the World Cup?
What dividends did Qatar believe it would derive from this diversionary enterprise and why, exactly, would these deputies and former deputies allow themselves to be bought? In November, M.me Kaili practically made a fool of herself by hailing in the European Parliament and during a visit to Qatar the so-called “historic” progress of this absolute monarchy in terms of respect for human rights. That Qatar has established a minimum wage for immigrant workers certainly improves their situation, but this is still, precisely, only the bare minimum.
Some people think that the Kaili case may just be the tip of the iceberg. It is a scandal which, from the outset, reveals in any case the institution’s gaping inadequacies in terms of ethics, the fight against corruption and the supervision of lobbyists. We learn with this affair that this Parliament which claims to aspire to be a model of democratic practices is seriously lacking in transparency. And so it is, for example, notice The worldthat among other signs of opacity, nothing obliges European elected representatives to report on their meetings with members of foreign states.
It is a scandal which, for the time being mainly involving the Social Democratic (S&D) group of MEPs in the European Parliament, finds itself having negative repercussions on all the Member States of the EU in a context where, standing alongside Ukraine, they never cease to preach loud and clear the democratic bulwark against Russian authoritarianism. Given that, on the one hand, Vladimir Putin is rubbing his hands and that, on the other, this affair risks playing into the hands of populist voices just over a year before the European elections. The Parliament has in the eye a beam which imposes the need for “radical reforms”, to use the words of the go-getter MEP “rebellious” Manon Aubry. Will he be able to do it?