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Parliament said it expresses solidarity with democratically elected President Lula Da Silva, his government and Brazilian institutions and condemns in the strongest terms the criminal actions perpetrated by supporters of ex-president Bolsonaro, urging them to accept the democratic outcome of the elections.
MEPs said they welcome the efforts to ensure a prompt and impartial investigation to identify and prosecute those involved, the instigators as well as state institutions that failed to act in order to prevent the attacks.
They highlight a recent decision taken by the Supreme Court to approve federal prosecutors’ request to investigate ex-President Bolsonaro as he ‘may have contributed, in a very relevant way, to the occurrence of criminal and terrorist acts’.
The events in Brasília, the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021 and the December 2022 arrests in Germany of 25 individuals who sought to re-establish the German Reich are connected to rising transnational fascism, racism and extremism, MEPs warn. They underline the importance of regulating social media platforms to prevent misinformation and hate speech.
The resolution was adopted by 319 votes in favour, 46 against with 74 abstentions.
Parliament also urges the Moroccan authorities to respect freedom of expression and media freedom and to provide fair trials for imprisoned journalists, notably Omar Radi, Souleimen Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine. MEPs call for their immediate provisional release and demand an end to the harassment of all journalists in the country, as well as of their lawyers and families.
In addition, they strongly condemn the Moroccan authorities’ misuse of allegations of sexual assault as a way of deterring journalists from doing their job . They also urge the country to end its digital surveillance of journalists, including via the Pegasus spyware, and ask EU member states to stop exporting surveillance technology to Morocco, in line with the EU Dual-Use Regulation.
MEPs say they are “deeply” concerned about allegations that the Moroccan authorities have corrupted Members of the European Parliament and call for the application of the same measures as applied to representatives of Qatar. They commit to fully investigate and address cases of corruption involving non-EU countries seeking to buy influence in the European Parliament.
Finally, the resolution calls on the EU and its member states to continue to raise cases of detained journalists and political prisoners with the Moroccan authorities and to use their leverage to seek concrete improvements of the human rights situation in the country. The resolution was adopted by 356 votes in favour, 32 against with 42 abstentions.
