The suspicions of corruption which shake the European Parliament were at the center of a debate this followingnoon on the program “It’s not every day on Sunday”. Maxim Toller, the MEP’s lawyer, spoke for the first time on television.
“Bashing Qatar is ridiculous and hypocritical, the country has made huge progress, especially in labor rights” Here is a tweet that undermined Marc Tarabella, socialist deputy who had made a very different exit when the World Cup was awarded: “850 dead: Qatar can lose the organization of the World Cup.”
A reversal that challenges when you know the bonds of friendship that unite Marc Tarabella and Pier Antonio Panzeri, the brain of the Qatar Gate. During a meeting on Qatar in the European Parliament, the latter would have pulled the strings from the outside with his alleged accomplice in the room.
For Marc Tarabella’s lawyer, his client’s regarding-face is not one. It would only be a question of realpolitik. “You don’t attack a country head-onHe explains that the politician’s status has changed between the two publications: “When FIFA awards the World Cup to Qatar, he asks for a reattribution with the power he has and it doesn’t work. Afterwards, he becomes deputy chairman of a commission for the Arabian Peninsula and there, he has a slightly different position which means that he has to be a little more nuanced.”
He claims that Marc Tarabella visited Qatar twice, went to meet the workers and chose to highlight the evolution: “Mr Tarabella’s method is to tell yourself that you have to emphasize what is changing to continue in this direction..”
“Regular contact”
If he does not deny the known relations between Tarabella and Panzeri, the lawyer assures him, there was never any question of money: “It is true that they have regular contact and it is possible that Mr Panzeri advised to say such and such a thing, but there is no way for my client to imagine that Mr Panzeri paid for this friendship..”
According to Louis Collard, journalist at Eveningalso present on the set, Marc Tarabella was searched and “they did not find any money or suspicious things in his home“.
Not auditioned
If Maxim Toller does not have access to the investigation file and therefore did not want to speak on the subject, he wanted to insist on one point: “Marc Tarabella did not have the opportunity to speak in the judicial inquiry, he was never heard.” A situation that escapes the lawyer.