The Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) has expelled former Senator Frank Kraayelman from its ranks. This is reported by Politico, UNN.
Details
The official is accused of working for Chinese intelligence for three years. Party chairman Tom Van Grieken said that Kreelman's actions contradicted "the purpose and essence, even the name of our party."
This came after the Financial Times, Der Spiegel and Le Monde published a joint investigation. It described how China's spy agency allegedly used Krielman for three years to influence discussions in Europe on issues ranging from democracy in Hong Kong to the persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
I take this very seriously. This actually means that some people are sabotaging our prosperity, our security, our democracy from within, from the party that sits in our country's parliament, in the Senate
Addendum
Politico noted that the allegations against Kreelman are supported by his social media messages exchanged with a representative of the Chinese spy agency Daniel Wu between 2019 and 2022.
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Reports, for example, detail that in late 2022, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was about to visit China, Wu "asked Krejelman to convince two right-wing members of the European Parliament to promote the idea that the United States and Britain were undermining Europe's energy security."
Wu allegedly wrote to Kraehlmann in a text message: "Our goal is to divide the US-European relationship."
Recall
A Bundeswehr colonel is on trial in Berlin for passing classified data from the Ukrainian Armed Forces to Russia; he faces life in prison. The colonel was arrested for transferring classified files and continues to communicate from prison.