Self-Sacrifice by Struan Stevenson Read Free Book Online Page B

for Foreign Affairs] who is in Tehran trying to negotiate a nuclear pact with the Mullahs. They have heard that we are thinking about inviting Mrs Rajavi to the European Parliament and have demanded that we do no such thing, otherwise they will pull out of the nuclear talks!’ News of our intended invitation to Mrs Rajavi had clearly leaked, and it had not taken long for the Iranian embassy in Brussels to pick it up and transmit it to Tehran, causing a major flap. Hans-Gert Poettering said that we should adjourn any decision on the invitation until each of us had time to discuss it with our respective political delegations, and if necessary with our party leaders.
    Later that day, 29 June, the EPP-ED Group left for a three-day conference in Bordeaux, and that same evening I found myself at the top table with the rest of our Group Bureau at a dinner in the beautiful Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte. During the course of the dinner I left to go to the toilet. Having washed my hands and as I was heading for the exit, I noticed Elmar Brok, the President of the all-powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, having a pee amongst several other men at the urinal. Elmar is a large, rotund and florid German with a shockof blond hair and a beady glass eye. I said, ‘Hello, Elmar’ on the way past. Glancing over his shoulder, he shouted: ‘Stevenson, you must not invite this woman Rajavi to the European Parliament.’
    ‘Why not?’ I replied.
    ‘Because Angela Merkel says so,’ he shouted.
    ‘Well, I don’t take my orders from Angela Merkel,’ I said.
    Elmar exploded. ’Well I do,’ he screamed, spinning to face me and peeing down the leg of the man next to him in the process.
    I hurried out of the Gents, leaving behind shouts of exasperation from the man who had been soaked and Elmar’s grumbling apologies! Back at the dinner table I recounted the whole sordid tale to Hans-Gert and the other Bureau Members, to hoots of delight and roars of laughter.
    The following day, Hans-Gert told me that he had received a telephone call from a very agitated José-Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission. He confirmed that Javier Solana, pleading with him to try to stop Mrs Rajavi coming to the European Parliament, had also contacted him. It seemed that I had triggered an international incident. Sure enough, during the course of the day I was told by my good friend Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Senior Vice President of the European Parliament and an MEP from Spain, that he had received a telephone call from his own party leaders ordering him not to support the invitation; even Hans-Gert Poettering had been telephoned by Angela Merkel with the same message. It was beginning to look as if my plans for Mrs Rajavi’s visit were about to unravel.
    During this hiatus, a colleague in the EPP Group, Michael Gahler MEP, a former German junior diplomat, began what became an almost hysterical and obsessive campaign against Alejo Vidal-Quadras and me, because of our support for Mrs Rajavi and the PMOI. Despite the fact that he was a member of the same political family as us, he courted support from other political groups in the European Parliament, repeating false allegations which originated from the Mullahs and raising petitions and signatures on letters, which sought to denigrate our activities. Gahler continued this obsessive activity for all the years I served as an MEP, making himself appear increasingly irrational in the meantime.
    The intervention of the many European government leaders who tried to prevent Mrs Rajavi’s visit served to underline the clear importance of the PMOI and Mrs Rajavi to the Iranian regime. All this fuss for a 30-minute speech! Since the majority of the EPP Group’s bureau was in favour of her visit, the Group chair, Hans-Gert Poettering, had sent her a formal invitation, but we were under tremendous pressure. Mrs Rajavi was supposed to address our group meeting on Tuesday 4 July. She was already in Strasbourg on the