Belgian police sensationally raided the Brussels headquarters of the European People’s Party (EPP) Tuesday, April 4th, in relation to bribery allegations levelled against a senior German CDU politician Mario Voigt for his time as the 2019 EPP’s digital campaign manager.
Voigt is alleged to have been bribed to give preferential treatment to a Jena-based tech company to design the online app for the EPP to assist with door-to-door campaigning for the 2019 election.
Police seized computers in a joint operation with German authorities as the EPP confirmed that the raid pertained to the ongoing corruption case against Voigt.
The EPP is the parliament’s largest parliamentary group representing parties from the centre-right with the raids striking at the centre of power in Brussels. Voigt has previously served as a senior aide to EPP leader Manfred Weber.
The EPP has scrubbed all references to the company at the centre of the scandal from its website.
German police have previously raided properties owned by Voigt, with the Thuringia state legislature removing his immunity in September.
It is believed that authorities targeted the EPP premises in the hopes of finding evidence relating to Voigt’s time as the EPP’s digital manager, with the EPP so far being limited with details.
The raids are so far unrelated to the Qatargate scandal, which has ripped through the European Parliament over the past six months but will no doubt add to lingering tension in Brussels over corruption issues.
Authorities confirmed that no other EPP officials are being investigated at this time. The revelations came to light after a similar corruption case against Voigt’s CDU colleague Mark Hauptmann came to light, over COVID mask contracts.
The raid raises questions about the moral legitimacy of the EPP to grandstand on the current crisis within the S&D group over Qatargate and may impact any legislative response to the issue of EU corruption. The day’s events will surely dent the EPP’s ability to capitalise on grift and challenge assumptions that corruption exists solely on the Left of the political spectrum, with the proximity of Voigt to EPP leader Manfred Weber also a concern.
