Raids: Investigators focusing on Dutch far-right MEP's staffer in Russian influence case

The Belgian authorities raided the home and office of a European Parliament employee in an investigation into Russian interference in European politics, local media reported. According to ANP, the employee involved works for Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff (FvD). Sources identified the suspect as Guillaume P. to NOS.

Earlier this year, the Czech Republic reported that its intelligence services had unmasked a Russian propaganda network using the news website the Voice of Europe to discourage the European Union from helping Ukraine. Czech media reported that Dutch politicians were involved, but its sources never gave names, and the Czech and Dutch governments also refused to elaborate.

Sources told Belgian newspaper De Tijd that the Belgian authorities raided a European Parliament employee’s home in Schaarbeek and his office in Strasbourg as part of an investigation into the Russian misinformation network identified by the Czech authorities. The Belgian authorities are investigating possible interference, passive corruption, and membership in a criminal investigation, the sources said.

A press release by the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said that the searchers "relate to indications of Russian interference" in which "members of the European Parliament are said to have been approached and paid for the promotion of Russian propaganda." According to the prosecutor, De Graaff's employee "played a significant role in this."

De Graaf was a senator in the Eerste Kamer for the PVV from 2011 to 2014, including three years as the leader of the far-right party’s senate faction. He also led the PVV during the European Parliament elections in 2014 and 2019 and took a seat there in 2020.

Two years later, he switched from the PVV to the FvD. That October, he left the Identity & Democracy European Parliament group, saying that they held an “extreme warmongering” stance against Russia. In March, several MEPs asked the European Parliament to investigate De Graaf, accusing him of spreading “shocking” Russian propaganda.

Voice of Europe mainly interviewed far-right politicians in the EU, including from the Netherlands. The news site featured several interviews with FvD politicians, including De Graaff and party leader Thierry Baudet. PVV leader Geert Wilders also spoke to the site in the past. When confronted about that by other parliamentarians, Baudet said his party was subject to a “witch hunt.”