The EU prosecutor’s office on Tuesday said it had launched an investigation into the suspected misuse of funds by the now-defunct far-right political group Identity and Democracy (ID), that France's National Rally party had belonged to. According to reports, the bulk of the funds are thought to have profited companies held by a former adviser to party figurehead Marine Le Pen.

The EU’s prosecutor said Tuesday it has launched a formal investigation into a defunct far-right group, which included France’s National Rally party, over the alleged misuse of European Parliament funds.

Media outlets reported this month that a parliamentary report said the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) political grouping, which was disbanded last year, was suspected of improperly spending €4.3 million between 2019 and 2024.

The ID group contained MEPs from a range of eurosceptic parties including the National Rally of Marine Le Pen, the longtime standard bearer of the French far right, Italy’s League and the Alternative for Germany. 

According to the reports by a consortium of European media, the bulk of the allegedly misused funds benefitted companies belonging to a former adviser to Le Pen and his wife.

“The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation,” a spokesperson for the agency, which probes financial crimes against the bloc, said. 

The European Parliament said it “takes note of the decision” by the prosecutors to open the probe, first reported by Euractiv on Tuesday.

“As always, parliament cooperates fully with national or European authorities if requested so,” the parliament said.

ID was formally disbanded after elections last year and was succeeded by a new grouping Patriots for Europe.

Le Pen ally Jordan Bardella, who now heads the Patriots group, said the probe represented a “new harassment operation by the European Parliament”.

The investigation comes after Le Pen suffered a stunning blow in March when a French court convicted her and other party officials over an EU parliament fake jobs scam.

The ruling, which Le Pen has appealed, banned her from standing for office for five years, which would scupper her ambition of taking part in the 2027 presidential vote.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250708-eu-probes-alleged-misuse-of-funds-by-far-right-lawmakers-including-ex-le-pen-adviser

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

THE PROSECUTOR SHOULD PROSECUTE URSULA VON DER LEYEN INSTEAD....

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned that ties between the EU and China could further deteriorate if Beijing refuses to condemn Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

Speaking at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg on Tuesday, von der Leyen accused China of “de facto enabling Russia’s war economy,” adding that the EU “cannot accept this.”

“How China continues to interact with Putin’s war will be a determining factor for EU-China relations going forward,”she stated.

Von der Leyen called on Beijing to “unequivocally condemn Russia’s gross violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and internationally recognized borders.”

In the same address, she accused China of engaging in unfair trade practices, such as “flooding global markets with cheap, subsidized goods” in an effort to “wipe out competitors.”

Beijing has consistently denied supplying weapons or otherwise supporting Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. “China is not a party to the Ukraine issue. China’s position on the Ukraine crisis is objective and consistent, that is, negotiation, ceasefire and peace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said earlier this month.

“A prolonged Ukraine crisis serves no one’s interests. China supports a political settlement to the crisis as early as possible,” Mao added.

China has also opposed “unilateral” sanctions on Russia and has offered to help mediate a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev. In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Moscow, pledging to deepen the countries’ “strategic partnership” and expand bilateral trade.

https://www.rt.com/news/621214-eu-threatens-china-economy/

ACCORDING TO MANY STATISTICIANS, EUROPE HAS SPENT DOUBLE THE CASH FOR RUSSIAN GAS AND OIL SINCE THE MILITARY OPERATION STARTED, THAN IT HAS GIVEN TO THE KIEV NAZI REGIME...

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 SEE ALSO: https://www.rt.com/news/620884-nato-summit-china-containment/

On July 10, a motion of censure will target Ursula von der Leyen. It's unlikely to succeed, admittedly—but according to Jacques Frantz, it's not so much about overthrowing the Commission as about revealing the secrets behind it. The vote will have at least one virtue: forcing everyone to come out of the woodwork. And, in the process, revealing who serves the established order.

Thursday will be the day of all dangers. Indeed, a motion of censure against the European Commission and therefore its president Ursula von der Leyen was tabled and will be debated in plenary.

Even though the motion of censure has almost no chance of success, its submission is already a small achievement.

A shot for nothing? A spree to get people talking? Not so sure!

The debate and vote on the motion of censure on Thursday will be an opportunity to verify once again the abyss between, on the one hand, the submission of those who eat from the Brussels trough, and on the other, the unpopularity towards those who deliver his ukases with a concentration camp guard accent.

But there's something else: in France, some politicians—especially on the left—have gotten into the habit of playing both sides. Very keen to criticize Brussels in front of the herd of their voters, whom they despise almost as much as a horse dealer despises a batch of cattle destined for the slaughter, they are the first to vote for the most liberticidal and neoconservative laws as soon as they are far from their bases and hidden away in Brussels.

The elected officials of the "supposedly rebellious France" are masters in this area.

Except that on Thursday, even if censure has almost no chance of passing (I wish I were wrong), the phenomenon is rare enough that the motion and who votes for it will be the focus of everyone's attention.

It will then be time to take stock. If the Macronist "caste" and the right-wing curve have won the vote, the so-called rebels will have to make up their minds. And then, there's no question of making a mistake or calling in sick. We'll know exactly who is defending the order established by big business.

So let's not kid ourselves. Between those who will be swimming that day, those who will have pressed the wrong button when voting, and those who do not want to mingle their ways with those of the extreme right, there is no doubt that Ursula will garner the majority of votes from the "wretched of the earth." Even if the French language is slow to understand, it could well be that Thursday's vote will help open the eyes of some left-wing voters.

A matter to be followed with the attention it deserves.

PS: The motion of censure was submitted with the signatures of only three French MPs: Thierry Mariani, Virginie Joron and Sarah Knafo.

source: RT France

https://en.reseauinternational.net/motion-de-censure-contre-ursula-von-der-leyen-lheure-de-verite/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Stalin of the EU: How the unelected Queen of the Union plans to keep her grip on power
If Brussels followed its professed ideals, the European Commission and its head would fall

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission that runs the EU is finally facing a long overdue no-confidence vote. Its chances of success, all observers agree, are very small. And yet, this is an important moment.

That’s because the single most powerful politician in the EU is not, for instance, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz or French President Emmanuel Macron (notwithstanding their own delusions of grandeur), but Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission. Because in NATO-EU Europe, the true measure of power now is the ability to spoil whatever sorry remnants of democracy are still standing. And in spite of very tough competition, von der Leyen is the worst, most corrupting spoiler of them all.

Think of these two factors – the structural and the individual – if you wish, as broadly similar to what happened during the rise of Joseph Stalin in the former Soviet Union: Like the EU, the post-revolutionary Communist party was built to restrict political decision-making to a small and self-selecting group of true believers. And only those confessing the correct “values”were even offered a chance to join. Like von der Leyen, Stalin managed to turn this deliberately created “democracy deficit” to his own advantage by basing his personal despotism on it.

If you think that analogy is far-fetched, consider that in both cases, the rise of the Soviet despot and that of the European Commission president, real power has been concentrated in an overbearing and invasive bureaucracy that, formally, should only be an executive organ. There is a reason why, if you take one tiny step back, “general secretary” sounds rather similar to “commission president.”

And then there is the third fact that has facilitated von der Leyen’s performance as NATO-EU’s top spoiler. In this respect, she certainly does not resemble Stalin at all, but rather one of the many Eastern European satraps of Cold War Eastern Europe. Like trusty Walter Ulbricht of early East Germany or Poland’s Boleslaw Bierut who suffered a heart attack when Khruschev made Stalin the fall guy, von der Leyen is a vassal leader, just working for another outside empire. So obviously, so shamelessly that even Politico has – rightly – labeled her the EU’s “American president.”

The charges that her political opponents in the EU parliament have just used to initiate the current no-confidence vote are less fundamental – while still reflecting stunning misbehavior – and more specific, as they have to be.

In essence, they target von der Leyen’s – and the whole Commission’s – scandalous handling of the Covid-19 crisis (scandalous by the way from any angle, whether you approve or disapprove of vaccines); her subsequent and illegal refusal to provide key information on what she and the CEO of big pharma company Pfizer were up to during that period in messages that were private but should not have been; waste (to say the least) in the handling of a 650 billion-euro post-Corona crisis recovery fund; the misuse of a legal loophole to boost armaments spending via the EU; and last but not least, the weaponization of digital legislation to interfere in the recent Romanian, as well as German elections.

What all these transgressions have in common is not only that they may very well be criminal. They are also all variants of the same, fundamentally simple ruse: the manipulation or even fabrication of “emergencies” that are then exploited as cover for constantly escalating abuses of power. If there is one main principle of von der Leyen’s power grab, this is it. Again, Stalin knew a thing or two about that trick.

In sum, the sponsors of the no-confidence vote conclude “that the Commission led by President Ursula von der Leyen no longer commands the confidence of Parliament to uphold the principles of transparency, accountability, and good governance essential to a democratic Union.” They call on the Commission “to resign due to repeated failures to ensure transparency and to its persistent disregard for democratic oversight and the rule of law within the Union.”

And they are obviously right. If the EU was a halfway lawful, honest, and sensible organization, this should be a slam-dunk case of no confidence, and the Commission, with Ursula von der Leyen at its head, should fall. There is a precedent, too: In 1999, an entire EU Commission did resign, even without a no-confidence vote. A devastating report on corruption, fraud, nepotism, and mismanagement was enough.

Clearly, if anything, the EU has only regressed since then. Today it has a Commission which the EU’s own transparency chief has chastised as not only unelected and opaque, but also staffed with “consiglieri,” a term from mafia lingo. And where the gang consists of “consiglieri,”the boss must be a don.

Yet the EU now is not only highly dysfunctional but, in the wider sense of the word, fundamentally corrupt. Tactics will beat principle any day, no exceptions. That is why most of the over 700 parliamentarians in the European parliament will fail to do the right thing and eject von der Leyen and her Commission.

Meanwhile, the usual dirty tricks have been employed against von der Leyen’s challengers. Let’s not even focus on the petty and brazen procedural tactics deployed by the European Parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, to stifle debate on the no-confidence motion, as rightly castigated by AfD member of parliament Christine Anderson.

Or von der Leyen’s own cringeworthy attempt to blame any criticism of her once again on “extremism,” “polarization,” and manipulation by – as she clearly implied – the big bad Russians and “Putin” personally. In a similar daft spirit, the head of von der Leyen’s conservative grouping in the European parliament, Manfred Weber declared the whole vote a “waste of time” – at least he is honest about his contempt for democratic procedures and the rights of parliamentarians, you might say – and, of course, a boon to Russia.

Perish the thought that if anything “plays into the hands” of any opponents of the EU, it is precisely the Commission’s authoritarianism and corruption as well as cheap, demagogic attempts to shut down legitimate criticism by shouting “Russia, Russia, Russia!”

The leader of the no-confidence motion, Gheorghe Piperea, with a background as a lawyer and judge in Bucharest, is routinely being smeared as “far right,” for instance in the New York Times. This label is then extended to all those who dare rebel against the Commission, and – step number three – used to justify not supporting their ininitiative. So devious, so simple.

In reality, the issue of where exactly Piperea and his supporters stand on the political spectrum is simply irrelevant. What matters is the case that they are advancing, and that is iron-clad. Indeed, if this has to be done by the “margins” of the European Parliament, then shame on its self-appointed “center” – and even more so for helping protect von der Leyen further by helping defeat this long overdue challenge to her misrule.

But that is, of course, the real issue here: Von der Leyen bears enormous individual responsibility, including for the EU’s criminal and evil – there are no other words – support for Israel while the Zionist apartheid state is committing the Gaza Genocide and one war of aggression after another against its neighbors, near and far. But Von der Leyen can only be what she is thanks to structures designed to both imitate and in reality, kill democracy. And also thanks to the large majority of those without a conscience – at the very least – in the EU Parliament. Von der Leyen, like all villains of history, is not alone; she is merely the very worst.

https://www.rt.com/news/621229-eu-leyen-no-confidence/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.