EU legal committee agrees
Withdrawal of immunity for Meuthen is approaching
01/27/2022, 4:29 p.m
The former AfD boss Meuthen is threatened with criminal investigations in the affair of illegal party donations if he loses his immunity. That is probably the case in the European Parliament. Meuthen himself welcomes the step and wants a quick clarification.
The lifting of the parliamentary immunity of the AfD politician Jörg Meuthen has come closer. The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament voted to withdraw the MEP’s immunity, said an employee of the Parliament, confirming a report by the “t-online” news portal. This makes it more likely that the Berlin public prosecutor’s office will initiate an investigation into an affair about illegal party donations against the AfD federal chairman.
Now the parliamentary plenary still has to vote on it, which decides with a simple majority on the withdrawal of MPs’ immunity. As a rule, the plenum follows the committee’s recommendation. The vote is scheduled for the plenary week in February, according to the EU Parliament. This will take place from February 14th to 17th.
In July last year, the then EU Parliament President David Sassoli confirmed receipt of an application from the German authorities to allow the Berlin public prosecutor’s office to initiate preliminary proceedings against Meuthen.
“I’m fine with the lifting of the immunity, then it can be clarified more quickly,” Meuthen told the AFP news agency. He wanted the investigation to proceed quickly. “The allegations are factually false and unfounded,” he added.
According to a report by “Spiegel”, Meuthen is threatened with criminal investigations in the affair of illegal party donations from Switzerland. The Swiss PR company Goal is said to have supported Meuthen in the Baden-Württemberg state election campaign in 2016 with an advertising campaign costing around 90,000 euros. According to “Spiegel”, the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin sees an initial suspicion of a criminal offense because of the acceptance of illegal party donations.