O’Brien remarked, “It’s been shown repeatedly in recent years that Europe is dirty and requires a cleanup,” as waiters in bowties served coffee to attendees.
The EU faced a fresh embarrassment with the detention of former Commission Vice President Federica Mogherini and ex-top diplomatic official Stefano Sannino on Tuesday, as part of a fraud investigation, providing ammunition for the right.
On Thursday, a panel including French National Rally MEP Thierry Mariani and British political commentator Matthew Goodwin plans to critique the “deep-state network of civil service, NGOs, and captured institutions.”
Alice Cordier, a French activist and president of the Nemesis Collective, a feminist campaign group criticized as a far-right Islamophobic outfit by detractors, commented that “corruption is a significant issue.” She noted that the scandals exacerbate public anger, which has been mainly directed at the effects of migration.
However, Balasz Orbán expressed doubt that the scandal would significantly impact national elections, including his own leader’s challenging re-election bid next year. He stated that the internal corruption allegation is “not surprising to me, so it doesn’t add much.”
Yet, according to Daniel Freund, an MEP from the German Greens, the far right is not in a position to credibly lead the anti-corruption effort.
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