French lawmaker Virginie Joron, a member of the far-right Patriots for Europe group, said she will take legal action over false claims that she is on the European Parliament’s “blacklist.”
Jolon, who is also a member of the French People’s Rising Party, announced on X that she would file a complaint against “several media outlets” for deliberately disseminating false and defamatory information, particularly claims that she was blacklisted.
The MEP called the allegations “completely false” and said they were used to politically discredit her ahead of Strasbourg city elections, in which she is running as mayoral candidate.
In a statement, Joron said the President of the European Parliament “confirmed in writing that there is no blacklist and that I have never been on a blacklist and am not subject to any ban.”
Euronews’ fact-checking team, The Cube, contacted Joron’s representatives for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Where did the “blacklist” claim come from?
References to the purported blacklist can be traced back to a 2021 article in EUobserver that reported that the European Parliament had sanctioned Mr. Jolon, along with seven other MEPs, for taking part in what it called a fake election trip.
The lawmakers are accused of participating in surveillance missions related to Russia’s “electoral process” in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
The European Platform for Democratic Elections (EPDE), a network of election monitoring and democracy NGOs, says Yoron is part of a group of foreign politicians taking part in Russia’s 2020 “all-Russian vote” on constitutional reforms, identifying him as a politically biased “international expert” rather than an independent election observer.
The Cube analyzed expense reports showing that one lawmaker, Thierry Mariani, participated in election observation missions in Crimea in 2020 and Kazakhstan in 2021.
According to the document, Mariani was invited by the Citizens’ Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, which paid for his airfare and hotel. The Cube was unable to find any publicly available documentation for Joron.
French broadcaster France Info reported that as a result of their participation, eight MEPs were excluded from participating in the EU’s official election observation mission (EOM) and were at risk of suspension. However, this measure was described as largely symbolic, as the EOM is primarily made up of professional observers.
Has there ever been an official blacklist?
The EPDE report accuses Russia of forging international legitimacy by selectively inviting foreign politicians like Yoron to serve as “international observers” rather than relying on internationally recognized missions such as those hosted by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
However, a person familiar with the process told The Cube that the lawmakers are not on a “blacklist” and that no such official list exists.
Mr. Yoron is also not currently prohibited from participating in monitoring missions sponsored by the European Parliament.
Separately, several members of Congress, including Virginie Joron, were included in the 2021 Ukraine sanctions list based on a National Security and Defense Council decision enacted by presidential decree, which legal analysts said was related to a visit to Russian-occupied Crimea.