"Just a bit of political game-playing"

Now that the establishment has realised that Libertas is a serious threat to their cosy existence in their ivory towers things are starting to turn nasty. A few days ago Libertas submitted its formal application to the European Parliament asking for recognition as a party in the parliament. A requirement of this application is the signature of politicians from a quarter of the member states (seven).

Oddly, once the names on the list were revealed, one of the representatives, an Estonian politician called Igor Grazin, claimed that he had never signed the agreement, assisted by Andrew Duff, a British Lib Dem MEP for the Eastern region. According to the Irish Times:

“I have never signed any papers asking for recognition of Libertas as a political party in the EU and all corresponding claims are utterly untrue,” wrote Mr Grazin in a signed affidavit presented to parliament president Hans-Gert Pottering by the Liberal group.

Liberal MEP Andrew Duff, who uncovered the affidavit signed by Mr Grazin, asked Mr Pottering to “urgently review” the decision to recognise Libertas and give it EU funds.

“Mr Ganley appears to have fallen at the first hurdle. Apparently his claim to have recruited enough supporters was untrue. What Europe really needs is a bit more Veritas and a lot less Libertas,” said Mr Duff, who is a strong supporter of the Lisbon Treaty.

Well it didn't look too good for Libertas at that point did it? Except that they were lying. 

Today it was revealed that:

Libertas published photos of documents signed by Estonian Igor Grazin supporting the application of Libertas for EU Parliamentary recognition.

Mr Ganley accused the Liberal group in the parliament of "bullying and dishonesty".

A Libertas spokesman said the group was not concerned at the row, and described the development as "just a bit of political game-playing" by the Liberals in the parliament.

The Estonian politician had signed the document supporting Libertas in the presence of Declan Ganley and two or three others, he said.

So journalists were lied to, the public mislead and hours of time wasted for... "just a bit of political game-playing". Don't you just love the European Union?