Police raid EPP HQ in Brussels in connection with German investigation

Brussels, Apr 4 (EFE).- Belgian police raided the headquarters of the European People’s Party in Brussels on Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation into the 2019 European Parliament elections in the German state of Thuringia.

The EPP, Europe’s largest political group, confirmed the police searches in a statement.

“The party is cooperating in full transparency with the authorities involved, providing all relevant information and documentation. As this is an ongoing legal investigation, the EPP will not provide any further comment,” the group said.

Party sources told EFE that the investigation is into a contractor who worked for the EPP during the 2019 European election campaign and one of its subcontractors in Germany.

The investigation is focused on a possible case of corruption in a contract awarded by current CDU leader in Thuringia, Mario Voigt, who in 2019 managed the digital campaign of Manfred WEeber, the then head of the EPP European list and who today is president of both the party and its group in the European Parliament.

Voigt, who awarded the contract to a company in Thuringia, lost his parliamentary immunity in September following an investigation by the German public prosecutor’s office.

It is unclear whether that has anything to do with the case that led to the searches in Brussels on Tuesday, in which several computers were seized.

The EPP sources ruled out any connection with the bribery scheme in the European Parliament allegedly linked to Qatar and Morocco that came to light in December which implicated three MEPs and a former MEP, all of them Social Democrats. EFE

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