At the end of May, a female staffer from the Left Party attacked Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Alice Teodorescu M\u00e5we (Christian Democrats, KD) in the European Parliament. The course of events was confirmed by surveillance cameras and an investigation by the Parliament\u2019s security staff, but was transformed into something entirely different by Swedish media.<\/p>\n
T<\/span>he President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, asked Parliament staff to investigate the incident. After speaking with those involved and reviewing surveillance footage, the EU Parliament\u2019s security personnel concluded that the political advisor for the Left Party had \u201cinitiated and escalated\u201d the situation.\u2028The preliminary investigation by the EU Parliament led Metsola to condemn the actions of the Left Party\u2019s staffer and decide to review safety measures for MEPs.\u2028\u201cShe has asked the administration to investigate what measures are necessary to ensure a safe working environment,\u201d Delphine Colard told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. TT\u2019s quote from the Left Party\u2019s office manager, Marie Antman, reinforced the headline:\u2028\u201dIt turned out that a Swedish parliamentarian had simply attacked my staff member physically. It\u2019s extremely upsetting.\u201d\u2028Many media outlets published TT\u2019s version before the EU Parliament\u2019s investigation clarified that it was the Left Party staffer who \u201cinitiated and escalated\u201d the situation. While the Left Party\u2019s staffer disappeared into anonymity, Alice Teodorescu M\u00e5we wrote about the incident on social media the day after the widely noted altercation. The Left Party\u2019s leader Nooshi Dadgostar demanded in the media to see the surveillance videos even though the EU Parliament had concluded that the party\u2019s staffer had started and escalated the altercation. But when the EU Parliament offered to show the video, the Left Party did not show up. At the end of May, a female staffer from the Left Party attacked Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Alice Teodorescu M\u00e5we (Christian Democrats, KD) in the European Parliament. The course of events was confirmed by surveillance cameras and an investigation by the Parliament\u2019s security staff, but was transformed into something entirely different by Swedish media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-did-you-know"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4189,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4188\/revisions\/4189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.israelreport.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIn Swedish media, the staffer\u2019s attack on Alice Teodorescu M\u00e5we was transformed into something completely different, despite the surveillance footage and the investigation by EU Parliament security staff.\u2028The national news agency TT was the first to report on the incident and framed the main story as the Left Party\u2019s office filing a police report against Alice Teodorescu M\u00e5we (KD). The headline \u201cAlice Teodorescu M\u00e5we reported for assault\u201dand \u201cAlice Teodorescu M\u00e5we facing police report\u201d spread like wildfire through Swedish media websites.
\nDen nasjonale nyhetsbyr\u00e5et TT var f\u00f8rst ute med \u00e5 rapportere om hendelsen, og hadde hovednyheten om at V\u00e4nsterpartiets kontor hadde levert inn en politianmeldelse mot Alice Teodorescu M\u00e5we (KD). Overskriftene \u201cAlice Teodorescu M\u00e5we anmeldt for vold\u201d og \u201cAlice Teodorescu M\u00e5we politianmeldt\u201d spredte seg dermed som ild i t\u00f8rt gress via svenske mediers nettsider.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSwedish media echoed the Left Party\u2019s version<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nAlice Teodorescu M\u00e5we\u2019s (KD) chief of staff, Natalie Tegelberg, told the Brussels-based newspaper Brussels Signal that the MEP was on her way to a meeting when the Left Party\u2019s female political advisor\u2014unknown to her\u2014saw her, took photos, and filmed her without her consent, which triggered a quarrel that led to the scuffle.
\n\u2013 When Teodorescu M\u00e5we asked the person to explain her behavior, the woman said she planned to post the images on social media to \u201ctell the world what a terrible person\u201d Teodorescu M\u00e5we is, said Tegelberg.\u2028\u2013 Teodorescu M\u00e5we then asked if it was okay for her to take a photo of the woman, who became aggressive and forcefully tried to take Teodorescu M\u00e5we\u2019s phone from her hand, she continued.\u2028\u2013 Alice tried to hold on to her phone, and during the struggle, the staffer began shouting for security guards and made unfounded accusations of assault. Security personnel arrived quickly and calmed the situation, Tegelberg added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nPosted on social media<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\u201cYesterday I was assaulted in the European Parliament, at my place of work, by a person I had never met. When I asked why, I understood that it was about my views on Israel and Hamas,\u201d she wrote, continuing:\u2028\u201dYesterday it became clear to me that the boundary between the autonomous and parliamentary left has practically disappeared. An increasingly polarized tone has laid the foundation for hatred, threats, and dehumanization, creating political intolerance and aggression. Since October 7, I have repeatedly described\u2014in speeches, debates, and articles\u2014how boundaries are being pushed to intimidate journalists, politicians, and academics into silence. How arguments are being replaced by hatred.\u2028As unprovoked as the attack was, I have now been accused of assaulting the person in question. That accusation is false. The European Parliament\u2019s surveillance video, reviewed both initially yesterday and finally this evening by its security department, confirms that the staffer \u2018initiated and escalated\u2019 the scuffle. The incident was politically motivated and should therefore be seen as an attack on me in my role as an elected official, on my party, and on democracy itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nDid not show up<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\nOnly much later, and accompanied by a lawyer hired to defend the staffer, did the party agree to view the footage. The lawyer, unsurprisingly, came to a completely opposite conclusion than the EU Parliament\u2019s security staff.\u2028TT\u2019s editorial director, Vicktor Olsson, declined to answer how they verify the background of police reports that the newsroom receives via tips or press releases.
\n\u2013 That a political staffer files a police report against an MEP for assault is news regardless of the party affiliation of those involved. The sequence of events, background, and context are things we work on continuously. That was also the case here, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"