Qatargate extends to Morocco and the scandal in the European Parliament grows

It is claimed that up to 60 members of the European Parliament are already in the crosshairs for the most serious scandal in its history, which is not limited to the corruptive action of Qatar.

The investigations of the Belgian services with the collaboration of five European secret services have lifted the veils that covered other cases. Until now the most serious concerns the Moroccan government in another case of corruption in which a group of Italians also linked to the so-called Qatargate scandal appears to be compromised.

The newspaper The Republic followed the example of the Belgian in the evening with the case of Qatar and this Thursday he published an investigation into what, he explains, is not just a plot of corrupters and corrupted but “a true story of espionage”.

Its protagonist would be the DGED, the secret service of Morocco, with a devastating infiltration into the institutions of the European Unionin particular the Parliament of Strasbourg, with the complicity of a group of Italian parliamentarians and notables who would have pocketed millions in exchange for supporting the foreign policy of the Rabat monarchy on territorial issues and on the large movements of migrants that count at the European gates level.

Italians are too fully engaged in the Qatar maneuvers within the European Parliament.

But in the specific case of Morocco, the Eurosocialist group appears compromised, through three Italians who have led the dance of corruption.

the Italian connection

Two are MEPs, Antonio Panzeri, who has already finished his mandate, and Andrea Cozzolino. Francesco Giorgi is added, an official of the Parliament and above all a partner of the Greek Eva Kaili, one of the vice presidents of the same body, arrested in Brussels for the Qatargate.

The European secret services, notes The Republicreconstructed talks, dinners and meetings of senior officials of the services of Rabat, the Moroccan capital, with the Italian parliamentarians. They were dealt with by high intelligence officer Belharace Mohammed.

A special intermediary appears in relations with the Italians, the Moroccan diplomat based in Warsaw Aberrahim Atmoun.

“It is the demonstration that it was a real machination of the state,” he comments. The Republic. According to the VSSE analysis, the Belgian secret services, Panzeri, Cozzolino and Giorgi were “undoubtedly” collaborators of Moroccan intelligence.

Apparently central was the role of the Moroccan diplomat in Warsaw, who had much input in Brussels. “Eventually everyone took orders from him.”

But the most important link in the chain It was Mansour Tassine, the director general of the DGED, the Moroccan secret services. The three Italian personalities have traveled to Morocco several times since 2019 to interview him.

A Moroccan intelligence officer was in charge of booking the Casablanca-Rome tickets.

Niccoló Figá Talamanca, of the Non Governmental Organization “There is no peace without justice”, was part of the Italian network, which would receive substantial bribes and that he would also have met the Moroccan diplomat Abderrahim Atmaoun.

According to the Belgian investigation, Francesco Giorgi would have acted as an agent of the socialist MEP Panzeri, but it would have been the other European legislator, Andrea Cozzolino and Antonio Panzeri himself, who managed the agreements regarding the arguments in which they had to act to consent” Moroccan interference”.

The rules and system of Qatar and Morocco were the same with similar goals of meeting the needs of their respective governments. The regimes in Doha and Rabat naturally functioned completely independently in accordance with their diplomatic interests.

The difference is that in the case of Qatar the government itself intervened directly, while the Moroccans made use of a senior diplomatic official but it was the secret services that were in charge of managing the corrupt.

The Moroccans, according to the Belgian investigation, have not used complicated means. The cash of the corruption was transferred directly through the intermediation of the Warsaw diplomat Abderrahim Atmaoun.

The distribution of bribes

The large bribes from the corruption were distributed between the Italian gang and members of the network that extended inside Parliament and other European institutions.

So far it is not known how many millions of euros are in the “moroccogate” treasury, nor is it known precisely how many are involved. But the investigations continue and the results will demonstrate how far we have come damaged the prestige of one of the central institutions of the European Union.

It will probably take years before it is possible to clarify clearly how many political decisions of the European Parliament that have been approved have been poisoned by Moroccan meddling or in which cases the right decisions have been overturned by the action of the Italian corruption network.

Both the case of Qatar and that of Morocco have caused enormous damage to the European Union to 27 countries and not only to their image, to the point of becoming a geopolitical issue that forces us to investigate whether there are other cases that have not yet been discovered.

There is talk of Bahrain and Iran trying to influence parliamentary decisions, but also of the interference of powerful interests who intervene by “lobbying” to direct decisions to their own advantage and who feel more motivated by the climate of corruption suffered by the institutions European. .

Rome, correspondent

B. C