Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic
\n The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.<\/p>\n
After the European elections, authoritarian regimes will have more entry points to influence EU decision-making, P\u00e9ter Krek\u00f3 and Rich\u00e1rd Dem\u00e9ny write.
\n ADVERTISEMENTThe Qatargate crisis is the\u00a0biggest\u00a0corruption case to hit the European Parliament in decades \u2014 arguably the most serious.At the time, Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament, addressed her colleagues in a crisis session by stating, “European democracy is under attack”.\u00a0Equally, the allegations of corruption and espionage surrounding MEP Maximilian Krah, the lead candidate of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), show how far Russia and China are willing to go in influencing the political decisions of the EU.\u00a0The German judiciary launched two preliminary investigations against Krah over alleged payments from Russia and China for his work in the Parliament. One of Krah’s aides was even arrested over claims that he spied for China. Likewise, Petr Bystron, second on the AfD’s list, is facing allegations that he accepted payments from Russia.\u00a0The threat is growing because parties with authoritarian instincts are more enthusiastic supporters of authoritarian states \u2014 and they often receive something in turn. These parties will gain influence in the upcoming EP elections: the Identity and Democracy Group, for example, may become the third largest in the EP. Raise your hands if you like PutinThese most recent examples are not isolated cases: Marine Le Pen\u2019s 2014 EP campaign was shown to have been financed by Russia.While the European Parliament is arguably the least influential of the EU bodies, its members (MEPs) wield power in shaping legislation, particularly in the final stages.\u00a0We can now see that authoritarian states are\u00a0willing\u00a0to buy influence in the European Parliament and its committees.\u00a0They are attempting to bribe MEPs to become Trojan horses of foreign interference.\u00a0And, of course, some of the money transfers get returns in the form of votes.\u00a0According to our research, the European Parliament\u2019s mainstream political groups are critics of authoritarian regimes, while those at either end of the spectrum are much more supportive. Renew is the most critical of authoritarian states, closely followed by the European People’s Party, the Greens, and Socialists and Democrats, with the European Conservatives and Reformists lagging behind.The far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) and the far-left Left are by far the least critical. At the same time,\u00a0there are\u00a0small\u00a0differences between them.\u00a0The pet regime of far-right authoritarians is Putin\u2019s Russia: ID is significantly more critical of China and other authoritarian countries than\u00a0of\u00a0Russia. Meanwhile, the far left is fond of both Putin\u2019s Russia and Xi\u2019s China: the Left group is less critical of Russia and China and more critical of other authoritarians.\u00a0Mainstream parties from Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Poland, and Romania, as well as opposition parties from Hungary and Slovakia, are highly critical of Moscow and Beijing in the European Parliament. However, in the European arena, criticism of authoritarians is socially desirable (and reflects the convictions of individual MEPs), and Eastern Europeans usually feel they have to behave. Yet, the same parties are far more supportive towards revisionist superpowers in their domestic parliaments or when in government.\u00a0‘Looking for Freedom’In Austria, Bulgaria, and Romania, domestic representatives are more \u201cpragmatic\u201d about these authoritarians. For instance, MEPs from the Austrian People’s Party (\u00d6VP) condemn authoritarians with the rest of the mainstream parties in the European Parliament. However, at home,\u00a0the \u00d6VP-led government blocks Kremlin critical initiatives.\u00a0Other parties are more consistent friends of authoritarians. Some of these parties are already in government \u2014 or will be in government soon. Most are on the fringes \u2014 such as Czechia’s Freedom and Direct Party and Slovakia’s Republic Movement. The one notable exception is the Freedom Party of Austria (FP\u00d6), which leads the polls in Austria and could become a governmental party in the upcoming European elections.\u00a0The FP\u00d6 maintains notoriously friendly ties with the Kremlin and even signed a “friendship” agreement with the Putin party, United Russia, in 2016. ADVERTISEMENTThe FP\u00d6 MEPs failed to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in\u00a0key\u00a0votes and speeches.\u00a0It has agitated against EU sanctions levied on Russia, calling for a referendum on the issue in Austria.\u00a0\u00a0On the election billboards of FP\u00d6, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is kissing Ursula von der Leyen, showing how far Brussels goes in \u201cwarmongering\u201d.\u00a0Some parties appear to be “soft defenders” of the Kremlin and other authoritarians. Hungary’s Fidesz, Slovakia’s SMER-SD, and Bulgaria’s BSP\u00a0\u00a0use similar language to the far right but deliberately withdraw from voting in the European Parliament, presumably out of concern for the reputational costs of openly supporting authoritarians.The shift of Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz is spectacular. Since Fidesz was expelled from EPP in 2021, Fidesz MEPs are voting more often in favour of Russia and China. The Fidesz MEPs\u00a0seem to\u00a0abstain from voting deliberately to avoid condemning countries that are friendly to the Hungarian government.\u00a0They missed more votes on issues relevant to Russia than the number of Kremlin-critical votes they cast. ADVERTISEMENTAfter Russia’s full-scale invasion of Russia, they abstained more frequently and even started to vote against resolutions condemning the Kremlin.\u00a0Alarmingly, on the anniversary of the Ukraine invasion, they failed to vote on a resolution condemning Russia for its war of aggression, as well as Belarus’ alliance with Russia.Strong allies awaitAfter the European elections, authoritarian regimes will have more entry points to influence EU decision-making. Extremist parties like the FP\u00d6 stand to gain more mandates, and\u00a0new far-right and pro-Kremlin ones, such as the Hungarian Our Homeland (Mi Haz\u00e1nk) and the Bulgarian Revival (Vazrazhdane), are likely to join the European Parliament. So, when authoritarian states keep softening the European Parliament’s hawkish foreign policy approach, they will find a strong ally in the increasingly strong far right.P\u00e9ter Krek\u00f3 is Executive Director, and Rich\u00e1rd Dem\u00e9ny is Political Analyst at the Political Capital Institute.ADVERTISEMENTAt Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at view@euronews.com to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews. After the European elections, authoritarian regimes will have more entry points to influence EU decision-making, P\u00e9ter Krek\u00f3 and Rich\u00e1rd Dem\u00e9ny write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-108252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108254,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108252\/revisions\/108254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}