Belgian and German police raided the headquarters of the European People’s Party, the EPP, in Brussels this morning. The umbrella of European Christian democrat parties says the raid is linked to an ongoing investigation in the German state of Thuringia.
“The party is collaborating with the authorities involved in a spirit of full transparency and is providing all relevant information and documents” says the EPP. “Because this is an ongoing judicial investigation the EPP will not comment further on the matter”.
The raid is thought to be linked to possible irregularities involving the election of a German Euro MP and isn’t connected to the corruption scandal that led to the arrests of deputy European parliament president Eva Kaili and the Belgian Euro MP Marc Tarabella as part of the Qatargate scandal.
The EPP groups 81 Christian democrat and conservative political parties in 43 countries. It is the largest group in the European parliament. Belgium’s Flemish Christian democrats of CD&V and the Francophone Christian democrats of Les Engagés are member-parties.