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It’s now not each day {that a} pair of sun shades reasons your downfall. However that’s what came about to Bjørnar Moxnes, a Norwegian left-wing celebration chief who used to be stuck on digicam stealing a couple of luxurious shades from Oslo airport.
“Numerous other folks have requested me how I may just do one thing so silly. I’ve requested myself that time and again in contemporary weeks. I don’t have an ok clarification,” Moxnes wrote on Fb.
In honor of Moxnes’ fall from grace, POLITICO brings you probably the most maximum embarrassing resignations in Ecu politics (and there have been so much to choose between). From intercourse scandals to misused executive budget to petty robbery, listed below are 11 of probably the most shameful examples with a facepalm rating from 1 (yikes, that’s embarrassing) to five (expensive lord, what have you ever performed?).
Tractor Porn
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UK Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned after being stuck staring at porn within the Area of Commons chamber in 2022. Parish claimed it used to be a “second of insanity” and stated he chanced upon the offending grownup content material by chance whilst Googling tractors, handiest to later admit that he did then take a look at exact porn (it’s unclear if the porn concerned tractors).
Parish admitted in an interview that his spouse at all times discovered him “oversexed.” He added that she would inform him “I’ll get the scissors to you when you don’t behave your self. Snippety, snip” if he were given “a bit of too amorous.” A vintage case of TMI.
Cuban cigars and a personal jet
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When Haiti used to be hit by way of an earthquake in 2010, French Construction Minister Alain Joyandet used to be in a position to lend a hand. To get to a world assist convention held in Martinique, Joyandet employed a personal jet value a groovy €116,500 — now not an ideal glance. He resigned after the scandal hit the headlines.
Joyandet used to be now not the one minister discovered to have wasted taxpayer cash below former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Junior minister Christan Blanc got here below hearth for getting €12,000 value of Cuban cigars the use of public money. Alas, Blanc couldn’t take into accout who had smoked all of them. “I smoke two an afternoon … that’s the utmost,” he stated. Who fed on the rest hundreds of euros value of cigars? he used to be requested. “I don’t know.”
Tax hypocrisy
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Former French Funds Minister Jérôme Cahuzac was a robust suggest in opposition to out of the country tax havens. You’ll by no means bet what he used to be later discovered to blame of. It used to be tax fraud! After all it used to be. Cahuzac’s unlawful fiscal actions have been first made public in a 2012 investigation by way of information website Mediapart, which reported he had didn’t claim cash saved in a Swiss checking account for as regards to two decades. Oops! The Panama Papers showed that Cahuzac additionally owned an organization within the Seychelles. He used to be sentenced to 2 years in jail for cash laundering and tax fraud.
There used to be some just right information that got here out of this situation, the introduction of an ethics frame, the Haute Autorité de los angeles Transparence pour los angeles Vie Publique.
The Town of Gentle — and graphic intercourse messages
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The 2020 race to be mayor of Paris used to be riddled with interior feuds and celebration contention. After which Benjamin Griveaux — the Los angeles République En Marche candidate and certainly one of Emmanuel Macron’s greatest supporters — made everybody put out of your mind all about it as he used to be hit with allegations that he despatched graphic movies to an unidentified girl. Screenshots of sexually specific messages attributed to Griveaux — married with 3 youngsters — went viral, prompting the candidate to step down. “I don’t wish to reveal myself and my circle of relatives anymore when any type of assault is authorized, it is going too a ways,” Griveaux stated in a remark, in all probability ill-advisedly the use of the phrase “reveal.” The sexually specific content material used to be revealed on a weblog registered by way of Russian artist and activist Piotr Pavlenski. In an added twist, a kind of who unfold the graphic movies broadly on social media used to be MP Joachim Son-Fail to remember, who in 2021 had his Twitter account suspended for impersonating Donald Trump!
From a faux Russian with love
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Austrian Deputy Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache idea he used to be occurring a pleasing holiday in Ibiza, the place he met a lady claiming to be a rich Russian citizen who stated she sought after to spend money on Austria. The girl presented to shop for a 50 p.c stake in Austria’s Kronen-Zeitung newspaper and turn its information line to push the schedule of Strache’s far-right Freedom Birthday party. In flip, Strache stated he may just award her public contracts. Alas for Strache, she used to be now not a rich Russian in any respect. He later attempted to justify his movements by way of pronouncing it used to be “a drunken evening” and he used to be in no matter “intimate holiday temper” is!
The following scandal — dubbed “Ibiza-gate” — introduced down Sebastian Kurz’s executive. To be truthful to Strache, let the ones folks who haven’t attempted to industry public contracts for celebration donations from a lady we believed to be the rich niece of a Russian oligarch forged the primary stone.
25 bare males and a variety of medication
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Hungarian MEP József Szájer had probably the most wildest exits from place of business in contemporary reminiscence. A senior member of the Fidesz celebration, recognized for its conservative perspectives and its anti-LGBTQ stance, Szájer used to be stuck attending a lockdown-busting celebration in Brussels in 2020. Police discovered 25 bare males on the accumulating, in line with Belgian media stories, and a passerby reported seeing a person fleeing alongside the gutter, main the police to apprehend Szájer and to find narcotics in his backpack, prosecutors stated. Viktor Orbán referred to as the deed “unacceptable and indefensible” and Szájer give up the celebration and his submit in Brussels. For some reason why, there isn’t a statue of Szájer in Brussels.
Pores and skin within the recreation
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5 years earlier than Moxnes and the Hugo Boss shades, regional head of Madrid Cristina Cifuentes made headlines when outdated photos circulated appearing her allegedly stealing anti-aging cream. The incident used to be an “involuntary error,” stated Cifuentes, who used to be launched after paying for the €40 cream. However because the shoplifting scandal broke at the tail of a information website accusing her of mendacity about her graduate level, Cifuentes stepped down from her position.
Grabbing a chew to devour
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In but every other shoplifting scandal, a Slovenian MP misplaced his activity after stealing a sandwich from a store in Ljubljana. Darij Krajcic reportedly informed his colleagues he turned into frustrated when grocery store staff unnoticed him and made up our minds to habits what he referred to as a “social experiment” to check the store’s safety. Whilst the robbery went ignored, force from colleagues ended in his resignation — and to him paying again the price of the sandwich.
EU mass exodus
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Of all of the embarrassing resignations in this listing, that is the only with the most of the people concerned. In 1999, all the Ecu Fee led by way of Jacques Santer resigned after a scathing committee file discovered it to blame of “corruption, misuse of energy and fraud.” The 140-page file by way of unbiased mavens checked out fees of in style fraud, nepotism, and corruption within the Fee. Some of the commissioners on the heart of the hurricane, former French High Minister Edith Cresson, used to be closely criticized for hiring buddies and relations, together with her native dentist, to well-paid positions. The dentist, René Berthelot, didn’t get his enamel into the adviser position he used to be given, and produced just a 24-page file all the way through his 18-month stint operating for the EU.
Were given any snus?
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John Dalli, the EU commissioner for well being, resigned in 2012 after an anti-fraud inquiry connected him to an try to affect tobacco regulation. A Dalli aide referred to as Silvio Zammit used to be accused of seeking to download a whopping €60 million from a tobacco corporate referred to as Swedish Fit to opposite an EU ban on snus, one of those smokeless tobacco that may make the consumer appear to be they’re gargling bin juice. Dalli claimed he used to be pushed aside by way of the Fee leader on the time, José Manuel Barroso, and took him to courtroom. In 2019, the EU’s Common Courtroom rejected Dalli’s declare for reimbursement for damages he claims he suffered because of dropping his activity.
The PM, the secret agent products and services, his spouse and his lover
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In 2013, Czech High Minister Petr Necas resigned after his leader of personnel, Jana Nagyova, used to be charged with corruption and abuse of energy. A few of the crimes, Nagyova used to be accused of bribing former MPs, however what made headlines used to be her unlawful use of the name of the game carrier. It seems that Nagyova, who used to be having an affair with Necas on the time, allegedly used army intelligence to secret agent at the high minister’s spouse. Keep in mind that, this actual resignation used to be adopted by way of a divorce. However it wasn’t lengthy earlier than Necas and Nagyova had a cheerful finishing, getting married quickly after.
