Latest news with #Knafo
Spectator
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Can Ursula von der Leyen survive ‘Pfizergate'?
Ursula von der Leyen faces the biggest test of her European Commission leadership as MEPs gather to vote on a motion of no-confidence. Today's vote, the first of its kind in 11 years, has been brought by right-wing MEPs in relation to von der Leyen's secretive negotiations with a pharmaceuticals boss during the pandemic. But while the European Commission president has tried to spin the no-confidence motion in her as 'fuelled by conspiracy theorists' – and seems set to win the vote – make no mistake: her leadership is badly damaged by this debacle, perhaps irreparably so. Economically, militarily and diplomatically, the bloc is floundering The chief complaint against von der Leyen is her alleged 'failure to ensure transparency' about a lawsuit initially filed by the New York Times. The newspaper was denied a request for records of text messages between the commission president and Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer's chief executive, as she sought to secure a multibillion deal for coronavirus vaccines. Von der Leyen denies any wrongdoing in what has been dubbed 'Pfizergate', and earlier this week the German dismissed the allegations as 'simply a lie'. The Commission president told MEPs in Strasbourg on Monday that: 'I was in contact with top representatives of the companies producing the vaccines that would get us out of the crisis'. But she rubbished the idea that she has anything to hide. 'There were no secrets, no hidden clauses, no obligation to buy for member states,' she said. The messages weren't released to the public because they were too banal. MEPs smelt a rat. One of them, Romanian Gheorghe Piperea, triggered the motion of no confidence that required the support of 71 of his peers. They believe that von der Leyen is guilty of a lack of transparency, but they have other reasons for wanting to see an end to her six-year reign. Sarah Knafo, the European representative of Eric Zemmour's Reconquest party, has explained that she will vote against von der Leyen because of her alleged 'interference' in recent elections in Romania and Germany. Knafo said there was also opposition to the EU's Rearm initiative, which will spend €800 billion (£670 billion) in the coming years to boost Europe's defence capabilities. Knafo can count on the support on MEPs from Marine Le Pen's National Rally. One of the most prominent is Fabrice Leggeri, who was head of the EU border agency Frontex before he won a seat in Strasbourg last year. 'This vote is not simply a gesture of opposition, it is an act of responsibility,' he declared. 'It's about saying that another path is possible, the return of politics, the return of the people, the return of reality'. The vote has very little chance of succeeding: the two biggest political groups in Strasbourg, the centre-right European People's Party and the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats will certainly swing into line behind their president. So will the Greens and the centrist Renew outfit. Von der Leyen appears confident, bullishly brushing away the motion as 'being taken right from the oldest playbook of extremists'. Nonetheless, the vote is a sign of the growing unrest in the EU parliament at the leadership of von der Leyen. Economically, militarily and diplomatically, the bloc is floundering. It has an increasingly weak voice on the international stage, no matter how shrilly the likes of Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz shout from the wings. Few critics have been as vehement in their denunciation of von der Leyen over the years as Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally. In an address last month, he declared that his party 'rejects the Europe of Ursula von der Leyen and Emmanuel Macron, preferring a Europe of nations'. As of Wednesday morning, however, Bardella has some 'transparency' issues of his own, after police and magistrates raided the offices of his party and removed e-mails, documents and accounting records. The raid happened in the same week that EU prosecutors launched an investigation into allegations that the National Rally and its European allies misused funds. A report in Le Monde said that they 'are suspected of having improperly spent €4.3 million (£3.7 million) of European Parliament funds'. Bardella responded to the news by saying this was 'a new harassment operation on the part of the European Parliament administration'. The accusations are similar to the charges levelled at Marine Le Pen earlier this year. The leader of the National Rally and several other party members were convicted and she was disqualified from political life for five years. Although she has appealed, Le Pen has said that Bardella is the party's Plan B for the 2027 presidential election. Might they now be required to produce a Plan C? Bardella has denounced the raid as 'spectacular and unprecedented' and said that 'no opposition party has ever suffered such harassment under the Fifth Republic'. One of the National Rally's senior figures, the MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy, wondered aloud at the timing of the raid. 'As if by chance, in the week when Madame van der Leyen can be removed with a motion of censure on her scheming and fundamental dishonesty, they come up with some dodgy dossiers,' he said. What this week has proved is that the EU remains as dysfunctional as ever. In his speech in Westminster on Tuesday, French president Emmanuel Macron urged Britain not to 'stay on the sidelines' of Europe. But why would any country in their right mind seek closer ties to the EU when it is so dysfunctional and determined to tear itself apart?
Euronews
23-05-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Mainstream political groups propose overhaul of far-right tech report
Mainstream political groups in the European Parliament – the centre-right European People's Party, the centre-left S&D, liberal Renew and the Greens – are seeking an overhaul of a report into technology sovereignty presented in February by French far-right lawmaker Sarah Knafo, from the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group. Knafo's report touted six recommendations to boost technological sovereignty and guarantee the bloc's independence and security by protecting its strategic infrastructure and reducing dependence on non-European technology providers. The compromise amendments tabled by the EPP, S&D, Renew and Greens, and seen by Euronews, go beyond Knafo's six recommendations, listing 21 key elements for consideration, including digital infrastructure, fibre, 5G and 6G, cloud services, AI systems and quantum. The amendments call for example for 'a coordinated EU strategy for post-quantum cryptography to protect data from future cyber threats', increased investment in digital infrastructure to enable the growth of data centres, and stronger cybersecurity protection in all critical infrastructure sectors, with stricter measures to de-risk high-risk vendors in 5G and 6G networks. 'The geopolitical landscape and the resulting opportunity for market demand for European products and services' should be seen as 'a window of opportunity to position Europe as a global leader in trusted and secure digital solutions', according to the new draft. It calls on the Commission to set out a list of critical dependencies in digital infrastructure and technologies, and to assess storage services, identity and payment systems, communication platforms, as well as software, protocols and standards that support them, and to propose measures 'to promote access to market of products and services with high positive impact on technological sovereignty, European resilience and sustainability'. These include a call to encourage more private investment in high-potential European technology companies by simplifying the regulatory framework and scrapping two regulations for every new set of rules created in strategic sectors. The amendments say that 'the simplification of EU legislation must not endanger any of the fundamental rights for citizens and businesses and hence risk regulatory certainty; Any simplification proposal should not be rushed and proposed without proper consideration, consultation and impact assessment.' The report is awaiting a committee decision, in the Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committee, before it will be voted on in plenary, after the summer. Knafo's ESN group faces a 'cordon sanitaire' from the more mainstream political groups. The report is an own-initiative report, which means that it would force the Commission to respond on whether it will propose legislation or action on the topic.
Euronews
27-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
EU cloud certification should mimic French scheme, says nationalist lawmaker
A pending cloud certification scheme - which European companies will use to demonstrate that their digital systems are adequately cybersecurity protected for the EU market - should reflect France's own similar scheme, according to a Parliament report on technology sovereignty drafted by a far-right French lawmaker. 'When it comes to sensitive data, a European cybersecurity criterion should be introduced that takes sovereignty into account,' according to the report, seen by Euronews, which was submitted at the initiative of MEP Sarah Knafo, who belongs to the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group. The current European Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services (EUCS) does not provide sufficient guarantees regarding the hosting of European sensitive data, according to Knafo. 'In order to ensure that the hosting provider is not subject to non-European legislation, the EUCS certification would have to align with the guarantees required by the French SecNumCloud certification regarding the criteria of 'immunity' of data from extraterritorial laws and company control,' the report says. EU-level discussions around the voluntary cybersecurity certification scheme descended into a political scrap over sovereignty requirements after the Commission asked the EU's cybersecurity agency Enisa to start working on EUCS in 2019. France has led resistance to the proposal and wants to be sure that it can continue to use SecNum Cloud after the adoption of EUCS. A decision on EUCS has been pending with no clear timeframe of when it could make further progress. Some believe that the Commission wants hold revising the EUCS process until the Cyber Security Act (CSA), the related piece of regulation under which the EUCS will fall, has been reviewed. The CSA, which entered into force in 2019, was up for a review last year, but this hasn't yet happened. Cordon sanitaire The report is now awaiting a committee decision, in the Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committee, before it will be voted on in plenary, after the summer. It remains to be seen how the report will be received. Knafo's ESN group faces a 'cordon sanitaire' from the more mainstream political groups. Knafo cites six recommendations to tackle the issue of technological sovereignty, and to aim for a guarantee of the bloc's independence and security by protecting its strategic infrastructure and reducing dependence on non-European technology providers.
The Independent
15-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
The little-known far-right French politician with a direct line to Trump world
Marine Le Pen may be the dominant figure of the French far right, but in Trump world, a little-known European Parliament lawmaker called Sarah Knafo is making inroads. Knafo, a crypto-aficionado and supporter of tech billionaire Elon Musk, is one of the leading figures of France 's Reconquest, a fringe nationalist party with strong anti-Islam views led by former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour. Knafo, 31, and Zemmour, 66, were among the few French politicians to bag an invite to U.S. President Donald Trump's January 20 inauguration, snagging seats at the Capital One Arena before attending the Liberty Ball later in the evening. National Rally (RN) party chief Le Pen, whom the president famously stood up during a 2017 visit to Trump Tower, sent a three-person RN delegation, but did not personally attend. Le Pen has spent years trying to purge her party of racist and anti-Semitic elements. Her 'de-demonization' strategy has made her the frontrunner to be France's next president in the 2027 election, and she has been cautious about risking those hard-won gains by sidling up to Trump, who is widely disliked by voters in Western Europe. Knafo, who is emerging from Zemmour's shadow to be the driving force of Reconquest, has no such qualms. She has spent the last few years grafting herself to the intellectual architecture of Trump 2.0 - a retooled political brand that fuses U.S. nationalism, tech evangelism and anti-establishment fervour - to pitch herself as the movement's natural representative in France. 'Reconquest is the only party in France that defends this mix: pro-tech, pro-business, but also the defence of national identity,' Knafo told Reuters in an interview. Reconquest is a minnow compared to the slightly less extreme RN, France's largest parliamentary party. Zemmour, a Jew of North African descent who won just 7% of votes in the 2022 presidential vote, has proposed banning the first name Mohammed and carrying out mass deportations to preserve French identity. Knafo, who is also of North African Jewish descent, has sought to modernize Reconquest by aligning herself with the new political currents flowing from across the Atlantic. She acknowledged Trump's techno-conservatism is a hard-sell in France, where the welfare state is prized over libertarian disruption, but was betting Trump wouldn't back Le Pen. 'The de-demonization aspect is the opposite of what Trump advocates,' Knafo said. 'He doesn't have much respect for it.' The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Le Pen's wariness of Trump appears to be ebbing. She recently said his pressure on Colombia to receive deported migrants should be copied by France. Last weekend, she said the RN was 'the best placed in France to speak with the Donald Trump administration,' adding that her powerful wingman Jordan Bardella would soon travel to the United States. RN spokesman Laurent Jacobelli did not respond to a request for comment. Luc Rouban, a Sciences Po political scientist, said the RN is finely attuned to voter concerns in France, and doubted Knafo's Trumpian conceit could succeed electorally. 'The United States is not France,' he said. Knafo studied at France's ENA administrative college, an elite finishing school whose alumni include President Emmanuel Macron, before joining Zemmour for his failed presidential bid. During the 2022 campaign, Zemmour's anti-Islamism attracted the interest of Trump, who was at a low ebb after losing the 2020 election. ''Don't give up,'' Knafo recalled Trump telling Zemmour in a widely reported 2022 call. ''Now you're visible, all the media will be against you. They'll say you're too brutal, too radical. Don't listen to them. Don't talk to the media. Talk directly to the people.'' Knafo said she subsequently gravitated to Trump-aligned conservative thinkers, figures like journalist Christopher Caldwell and Michael Anton, who recently became a senior U.S. State Department official. Caldwell visited her at the European Parliament last month while Knafo met with Anton at Trump's inauguration, according to posts on her Instagram account. Anton and Caldwell, who both declined to comment, are senior fellows at the Claremont Institute, a California think-tank and intellectual cradle for Trumpism with close links to Vice President JD Vance. Last year, Knafo spent around two weeks in California as a Claremont fellow with young conservative stars, including Natalie Winters, the co-host of Steve Bannon's popular War Room podcast. Winters didn't respond to requests for comment. After the fellowship, Knafo returned to Brussels where she delivered a September speech that was picked up by popular accounts on Musk's X. 'We will always prefer ... Elon Musk to Ursula von der Leyen, freedom to censorship,' she declared, in reference to the European Commission president. Knafo said her speech caught the eye of Jacob Helberg, a Paris-born tech executive who Trump has nominated to be the State Department's top economist. He invited her to attend a Miami memorial for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, where she said she shared a few words with Trump. That led to an invite to the United States for the November 4 election, and then another for Trump's inauguration. Helberg's spokeswoman, Marcy Simon, confirmed Helberg had invited Knafo to the U.S. events. While in the United States for the inauguration, Knafo also met with crypto billionaire Michael Saylor, the co-founder of bitcoin stockpiler Strategy, to discuss 'the upcoming French elections,' according to her social media posts. Saylor did not respond to Reuters requests for comment, but reposted Knafo's account of their meeting on X, writing 'France could use more Bitcoin.' Knafo said the links she is building with Trump-world could outlast his four years in office, as then 'JD Vance can be president.'
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Meet the little-known far-right French politician with a direct line to Trump world
By Elizabeth Pineau PARIS (Reuters) - Marine Le Pen may be the dominant figure of the French far right, but in Trump world, a little-known European Parliament lawmaker called Sarah Knafo is making inroads. Knafo, a crypto-aficionado and supporter of tech billionaire Elon Musk, is one of the leading figures of France's Reconquest, a fringe nationalist party with strong anti-Islam views led by former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour. Knafo, 31, and Zemmour, 66, were among the few French politicians to bag an invite to U.S. President Donald Trump's January 20 inauguration, snagging seats at the Capital One Arena before attending the Liberty Ball later in the evening. National Rally (RN) party chief Le Pen, whom the president famously stood up during a 2017 visit to Trump Tower, sent a three-person RN delegation, but did not personally attend. Le Pen has spent years trying to purge her party of racist and anti-Semitic elements. Her "de-demonization" strategy has made her the frontrunner to be France's next president in the 2027 election, and she has been cautious about risking those hard-won gains by sidling up to Trump, who is widely disliked by voters in Western Europe. Knafo, who is emerging from Zemmour's shadow to be the driving force of Reconquest, has no such qualms. She has spent the last few years grafting herself to the intellectual architecture of Trump 2.0 - a retooled political brand that fuses U.S. nationalism, tech evangelism and anti-establishment fervour - to pitch herself as the movement's natural representative in France. "Reconquest is the only party in France that defends this mix: pro-tech, pro-business, but also the defence of national identity," Knafo told Reuters in an interview. Reconquest is a minnow compared to the slightly less extreme RN, France's largest parliamentary party. Zemmour, a Jew of North African descent who won just 7% of votes in the 2022 presidential vote, has proposed banning the first name Mohammed and carrying out mass deportations to preserve French identity. Knafo, who is also of North African Jewish descent, has sought to modernize Reconquest by aligning herself with the new political currents flowing from across the Atlantic. She acknowledged Trump's techno-conservatism is a hard-sell in France, where the welfare state is prized over libertarian disruption, but was betting Trump wouldn't back Le Pen. "The de-demonization aspect is the opposite of what Trump advocates," Knafo said. "He doesn't have much respect for it." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Le Pen's wariness of Trump appears to be ebbing. She recently said his pressure on Colombia to receive deported migrants should be copied by France. Last weekend, she said the RN was "the best placed in France to speak with the Donald Trump administration," adding that her powerful wingman Jordan Bardella would soon travel to the United States. RN spokesman Laurent Jacobelli did not respond to a request for comment. Luc Rouban, a Sciences Po political scientist, said the RN is finely attuned to voter concerns in France, and doubted Knafo's Trumpian conceit could succeed electorally. "The United States is not France," he said. TRUMP TIES Knafo studied at France's ENA administrative college, an elite finishing school whose alumni include President Emmanuel Macron, before joining Zemmour for his failed presidential bid. During the 2022 campaign, Zemmour's anti-Islamism attracted the interest of Trump, who was at a low ebb after losing the 2020 election. "'Don't give up,'" Knafo recalled Trump telling Zemmour in a widely reported 2022 call. "'Now you're visible, all the media will be against you. They'll say you're too brutal, too radical. Don't listen to them. Don't talk to the media. Talk directly to the people.'" Knafo said she subsequently gravitated to Trump-aligned conservative thinkers, figures like journalist Christopher Caldwell and Michael Anton, who recently became a senior U.S. State Department official. Caldwell visited her at the European Parliament last month while Knafo met with Anton at Trump's inauguration, according to posts on her Instagram account. Anton and Caldwell, who both declined to comment, are senior fellows at the Claremont Institute, a California think-tank and intellectual cradle for Trumpism with close links to Vice President JD Vance. Last year, Knafo spent around two weeks in California as a Claremont fellow with young conservative stars, including Natalie Winters, the co-host of Steve Bannon's popular War Room podcast. Winters didn't respond to requests for comment. MUSK'S ORBIT After the fellowship, Knafo returned to Brussels where she delivered a September speech that was picked up by popular accounts on Musk's X. "We will always prefer ... Elon Musk to Ursula von der Leyen, freedom to censorship," she declared, in reference to the European Commission president. Knafo said her speech caught the eye of Jacob Helberg, a Paris-born tech executive who Trump has nominated to be the State Department's top economist. He invited her to attend a Miami memorial for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, where she said she shared a few words with Trump. That led to an invite to the United States for the November 4 election, and then another for Trump's inauguration. Helberg's spokeswoman, Marcy Simon, confirmed Helberg had invited Knafo to the U.S. events. While in the United States for the inauguration, Knafo also met with crypto billionaire Michael Saylor, the co-founder of bitcoin stockpiler Strategy, to discuss "the upcoming French elections," according to her social media posts. Saylor did not respond to Reuters requests for comment, but reposted Knafo's account of their meeting on X, writing "France could use more Bitcoin." Knafo said the links she is building with Trump-world could outlast his four years in office, as then "JD Vance can be president." (Writing by and additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
