What makes the Parliament a giant target for foreign interference

Your essential companion on the #EU2024 campaign trail.
By EDDY WAX
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BONJOUR. There are 41 days until June 6. I was just in Strasbourg where the last plenary session of this legislative cycle has finished. MEPs vying to return are now fully in campaign mode for the next six weeks.
After a few days of teary farewell speeches, gift-giving, final visits to the Parliament gym, and reflections on a crisis-ridden five years, MEPs are heading home while in Brussels the “last and most decisive stage” of the European Parliament’s communication strategy for the election is kicking off today, with a “specific brand” of the campaign targeting countries with low turnout on TV and radio.
QATAR, MOROCCO, RUSSIA, CHINA … WHAT MAKES THE EP A SITTING DUCK? When a parliamentary assistant to far-right German MEP Maximilian Krah was arrested in Dresden on charges of spying for China on Tuesday, the news pulsated through the European Parliament in Strasbourg — but surprise wasn’t one of the main reactions.
In fact, the allegations seemed to confirm a pattern of foreign powers attempting to invade the EU assembly. Still under the cloud of Qatargate, the Parliament’s last few months have been further darkened by allegations that an MEP spied for Russia and that others were paid to spread Russian disinformation in the run up to June 6-9. Now there’s a potential Chinagate on our hands.
Left in the dark: Roberta Metsola updated senior MEPs in an in camera meeting on Monday evening on the scandal surrounding a media outlet called Voice of Europe that held interviews inside the Parliament with some 16 MEPs. But there wasn’t much for Metsola to tell: a month after Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo dramatically announced that MEPs were on its payroll, Parliament has still not received any names or requests to lift immunity from the Belgian prosecutor handling an investigation, my sources tell me. His March 28 announcement dealt the Parliament another reputational blow, but a month later there’s nothing to show for it in Brussels.
“While the EP takes the case with utmost seriousness, as long as the member state [governments] and law enforcement agencies only hint that the uncovered networks reach the EP, they do not share any information,” wrote Heidi Hautala, a senior Green MEP, in a message to Playbook.
Please come in and interfere: The Parliament itself is in a particularly vulnerable position, having no intelligence service of its own or serious investigative powers. The EP relies fully on the Belgians to protect its Brussels base, both from physical threats and foreign interference. 
As if to prove the porosity of the building, an MEP (one of those who gave an interview to Voice of Europe) managed to smuggle in and release a live bird in the Parliament’s hemicycle this week. (But forcing journalists and other visitors to take off their belts every time we enter the building is definitely keeping things safe!)
Massive security flaws: No one vets the over 2,000 parliamentary assistants, calls by MEPs that staffers should undergo security clearance have long gone unheeded, and the most terrifying punishment an MEP can face is being subjected to an MEP-led advisory committee on the code of conduct of members, which will probably end up with a fine at worst.  (Krah faced the panel Tuesday). 
Weak powers: All that the Parliament’s security department DG SAFE — which is mostly made up of muscle — can really do is conduct open-source checks on things like who MEPs meet, who they invite to events, and who they give entry badges to. 
Locked in: DG SAFE’s top official Maria Jose Martinez Iglesias is on the verge of retirement but had her contract extended recently until the end of the year to cover the transition.
You were warned: Back in 2021, after fears of a Chinese influence campaign in the EP, senior MEPs urged the Parliament to beef up its security controls, sending a letter to the then-president and secretary-general that was published by EU Observer.
More of the same, but faster: Greens co-president Terry Reintke said this week: “We do have the power as we have seen in cases beforehand that for example, when MEPs breach the code of conduct, to sanction them, and we want to see this kind of investigation … sped up now, in order to already have a first assessment before the elections.”
In the final vote of the 2019-2024 legislature, MEPs called Thursday for the Parliament to beef up its “internal security culture” by making security training mandatory for MEPs and staffers, and reinforcing screening of staff. It calls for “effective monitoring and surveillance systems to detect foreign interference,” without infringing MEPs’ freedoms. 
No trust: Worse for the Parliament, the Belgians appear loathe to share anything confidential. And that’s perhaps not surprising. Even the EEAS’s closed-door briefings to MEPs on foreign policy and security are widely rubbished as little more than what can be read in the newspapers. 
Greens attack far-right for Russia ties: The European Greens party launched a website last night alleging connections between far-right EU politicians and the Kremlin. “When you play with the far-right, you’re playing Russian roulette,” it states.
GROUP CHANGES RESHAPED THE PARLIAMENT: Here’s your casual reminder that it’s very hard to vote for a political group in the European Parliament election — if only because elected MEPs aren’t always staying put.
Lawmakers who have quit their political group and joined another have kept the Parliament in a near-constant state of flux. According to a Parliament summary in mid-January, the far-right ID group took the biggest hit, losing 19 MEPs (although most of those switching remained non-attached).
The snapshot shows how the Renew group welcomed lawmakers who’d previously sat to the left and right of it in the EU hemicycle, but that the European People’s Party’s new joiners — many of whom came from ID or the European Conservatives and Reformists — tilted it (slightly) to the right.
Parliament’s political groups as of January 2024. MEPs who joined a new group are displayed separately in the color of their previous group.
The MEPs of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party were responsible for the largest single shake-up when they quit the EPP. But no one has exchanged more groups for another than Italy’s MEPs.
Far-right making gains in the Algarve sun
In Portugal’s southern tourism heartland, the price of everything from rent to staples like coffee is on the rise. So is support for the far right.
Almost one in three locals in Portimão voted for the anti-establishment far-right party Chega, which means “enough” in Portuguese, for the first time in the country’s recent national election.
Traditionally, the city of 60,000 has been loyal to the left since the 1974 revolution that overthrew Portugal’s rightwing dictatorship. Now, Portimão leads the country’s sudden swing to the far right. Its success is partly down to rising prices, perceptions of increased migration, and a longstanding feeling the state cares little for the area.
That’s emblematic of a broader shift across Europe, with far-right parties leading the polls from France to Austria, and the hard right vying for third place in this summer’s EU election.
But that change is more jarring in Portugal, a country where the memory of the repressive Estado Novo regime was long considered a vaccine against the far right. Its voters rejected ultranationalist parties long after the hard right gained representation elsewhere in Europe. But since Chega first entered the country’s parliament in 2019, extremism has been on the rise.
In the Algarve, the EU feels far away but June’s bloc-wide election will still be important. For locals, it’s a chance to send a strong message on issues like housing to Lisbon. For mainstream parties, it offers an opportunity to stem Chega’s seemingly unstoppable ascent. 
Like elsewhere in Europe, the rightward shift is partly down to economics and partly the politics of migration.
Around a quarter of the region’s 400,000 residents are foreigners, with a growing share of those low-income migrants from South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh who take advantage of relaxed visa rules to get jobs as seasonal workers in the Algarve’s tourism sector.
Locals complain the new arrivals are disturbing life in the seaside resort. 
“They don’t respect our rules,” insisted Ana Lucia Caetano, a hostel owner in Portimão, who claims shops run by migrants close far later than legal opening hours and says security has become more of a problem. 
The Algarve also hosts tens of thousands of wealthy expats mainly from the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries. 
And while locals like the fact they boost investment in the area, that’s putting pressure on prices.
“It’s fair to say that there is a tension there,” said Michael Reeve, a former British police worker who moved to Portugal 22 years ago and now runs its largest foreign residents’ association, Afpop.
“There is no coincidence there that whilst these people have been coming in … Portuguese wages have stayed the same,” he said. “In my opinion, that’s one of the reasons that Chega got so much of a turnout.”
by Victor Jack
Victor’s full story will be published early next week.
Ribera’s running: Teresa Ribera will be the lead candidate for Spanish Socialist party PSOE, putting her in the running to be Spain’s commissioner. She told POLITICO in January she didn’t want a job in Brussels. The full PSOE list is expected to be unveiled Tuesday.
Pascal Enfin! Emmanuel Macron ally Pascal Canfin, who has chaired the environment committee since 2019, is running again, according to one of his assistants. 
Junts in time: Catalan MEP Carles Puigdemont’s assistant Aleix Sarri Camargo will run in third place on the Junts list in Spain.
Ursula goes online: The EPP Spitzenkandidat launched a bare-bones campaign website Ursula2024.eu with a purple and orange color scheme. You can now get Ursula von der Leyen stickers and update your profile picture to include the president’s name.
Dancing with the stars: Letizia Moratti announced her decision to run as an MEP in dancing style earlier this week, my colleague Carlo Martuscelli writes in to say. The former Italian education minister and mayor of Milan is running with Forza Italia, the center-right party founded by Silvio Berlusconi. Remind you of anyone?
In other Italy news: A controversial former general, Roberto Vannacci, also threw his hat in the ring, announcing his candidacy with the far-right League party. Vannacci caused a scandal after he published a decidedly political autobiography seen as infringing on the military’s traditional political neutrality.
NO SPITZ FOR ECR: The European Conservatives and Reformists party will not have a lead candidate this time around, they finally decided this week. Their 2019 Spitz, Jan Zahradil, said the lead candidate process was “redundant muscle flexing.” They also adopted a 10-point manifesto here.
GET READY FOR MAASTRICHT: Nerves are starting to jangle ahead of Monday’s first EU election debate, which POLITICO is hosting in Maastricht with Studio Europa. ALDE Spitzenkandidat Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has run a contest to join her on the battle bus to the debate, which reminds me of my own bumpy bus journey a few weeks back. 
Get to know the eight candidates, including the EPP’s Ursula von der Leyen and PES’s Nicolas Schmit, here. And make sure to join us on Monday evening (we’ll show the debate and run a live blog on our website).
WAVE GOODBYE TO THESE MEPs: My fellow reporters in the newsroom have been hitting the phones to ask all 705 MEPs if they are running again, as part of an ongoing project. So far we have verified a total of 138 current MEPs who are not standing again, including:
Dutch ECR Rob Rooken, Dutch EPP Annie Schreijer-Pierik, Spanish Socialist Clara Aguilera, French EPP Arnaud Danjean, Greek Left Dimitris Papadimoulis, Swedish Left Malin Björk (who gave a farewell tribute to lesbians in the plenary this week), German EPP Markus Pieper, Italian Socialist Paolo de Castro, French EPP Laurence Sailliet, Spanish Renew Maite Pagazaurtundúa, Polish EPP Jerzy Buzek and Danuta Hubner, French Green Karima Delli, Czech ECR Jan Zahradil, Dutch EPP Toine Manders, Bulgarian Socialist Peter Vitanov, Czech Renew Dita Charanzová and … NINE Portuguese Socialists …
LONG KNIVES IN LISBON: Take a moment to say adeus to all of Portugal’s Socialist MEPs because you won’t be seeing any of them in the next term, my colleague Aitor Hernández Morales writes in to report. Not a single one of the group’s current lawmakers has been chosen to be part of the party’s lists for the June vote. That means heavyweight S&D lawmakers such as Pedro Marques (who was almost Portugal’s EU commissioner) and Parliament Vice President Pedro Silva Pereira are goners. 
Why the purge? The development has been interpreted as a sign that Pedro Nuno Santos, who succeeded former Prime Minister António Costa as the head of the Portuguese Socialists last January, wants to replace folks who are loyal to his predecessor with his own allies. Former Minister of Health Marta Temido will lead the electoral list, which includes ex-Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ana Catarina Mendes and Bruno Gonçalves, secretary general of the International Union of Socialist Youth.
ABOUT THAT PRO-RUSSIAN DOVE: The Slovak MEP who released a dove in the plenary in a pro-Russian demand for “peace” (i.e. Ukraine to roll over and accept Russian terms) was far-right MEP Miroslav Radačovský, who famously called in a speech in January for Slavs to unite and carpet bomb Western Europe. His son Michal, who is the party spokesperson, is frequently seen around the Parliament. According to a report released today by European Platform for Democratic Elections, Radačovský junior went to Russia last month as a fake observer of Vladimir Putin’s presidential election in the Pskov Oblast. His father went to Russia as a fake election observer in 2021. Oksany Havryliv, the Ukrainian intern of another Slovak MEP, Jozef Mihal, dared Radačovský senior to come to Ukraine and see the destruction wrought by Russia himself. “Witnessing reality will show why anything other than victory is unacceptable,” she said.
LEAVING THE PARTY: With just over a month to go for the campaign, two European party communications hands announced new roles outside of politics: Iiris André, former head of comms and press for the ALDE party, is now communications manager at the European Judicial Training Network. And Roza Ismailai, Volt Europa’s head of comms, said this week that she is departing the party.
Socialist lead candidate Nicolas Schmit will attend a cross-border event in Schengen, Luxembourg, to talk about freedom of movement, and press for Romania and Bulgaria to fully integrate into the Schengen area.
Green lead candidate Terry Reintke campaigns with Polish Greens’ lead candidate Joanna Kaminska in Poland on Saturday, focusing on access to safe and legal abortion; the Greens will hold an election rally at Tour & Taxi in Brussels next Friday.
ALDE’s FDP party is holding its congress this weekend.
EPP: It’s a mystery.
POLITICO’s Leyla Aksu has made another playlist of songs to get you in the mood for the election. This week’s has some top tunes from Portugal. Here it is. Enjoy.
MEP trivia: This week I’m asking you to name two countries in which different parties are running together on the same lists … and also tell me which parties they are! Tough one. Answers by email, please. 
Last week, I asked you to name the two most famous bars in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Some people mentioned the “MEP Bar” but I was looking for the Swan Bar and the Flower Bar!  Technically the Flower Bar has a much more boring name though: the General Bar.
Congratulations to Phinia’s Simon Godwin, S&D’s Rogerio Ribeiro Ferraz, MSD’s David Earnshaw, Parliament DG EXPO’s Felix Smets, Parliament DG PERS’s Marta Macaluso, and Christina Davidsen for their correct and swift answers. 
Bonus: Some readers mentioned the “Carpet Bar” as an alternative name for the Flower Bar, and told me there used to be something called the “Chauffeurs’ Bar.” Who knew!?
In your ears — assessing this Parliament: Your Election Playbook author joined a mega-panel of POLITICO journalists on this week’s edition of the EU Confidential podcast to assess the past five years of the EU’s only directly elected body. Is it still just a junior partner to the Commission and the European Council? Or did this class of MEPs earn a more powerful position? Listen here.
Casual reminder: We’re also on WhatsApp! Follow our account here to stay up to date on the latest European election news in between Playbook editions.
Current election excitement level: School’s out for the campaign!
Joke of the week (1): “Europe is much more than a Union, it is our home,” says Ursula von der Leyen’s new campaign slogan. “Especially for you, as you live in the Berlaymont,” quipped Julien Hoez of the French Dispatch blog.
Joke of the week (2): This picture of the AfD leaders spotted by the Guardian’s Deborah Cole.
Send me your campaign posters! I am building an online collection of EU election campaign posters around the Continent. Please send in photos of posters if you spot some on your travels.
Last word: “In 2019, the ‘Spitzenkandidat’ system failed. Now it is only redundant #EP muscleflexing exercise, going beyond Treaties, trying to overplay Council,” tweeted Jan Zahradil, a Czech ECR MEP.
THANKS TO: Hanne Cokelaere, Elisa Braun, Sarah Wheaton, Giulia Poloni and Paul Dallison.
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