Lisanne van Vucht
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lisannevanvucht.bsky.social
Lisanne van Vucht
@lisannevanvucht.bsky.social
2.9K followers 400 following 39 posts
PhD researcher and Teaching Assistant Political Science @ Trinity College Dublin | Freelance Investigative Journalist 📧 [email protected]
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Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
Is Google’s dominantie het resultaat van innovatie of van slimme manipulatie? Zelf wil het bedrijf dat je het eerste gelooft. In Brussel en Washington woedt de strijd om zijn toekomst als één machtig concern – en om te winnen zet de zoekmachine werkelijk alles op alles. www.ftm.nl/artikelen/he...
Brussel belazeren: zo vecht Google voor zijn dominante marktpositie
Google vecht in Brussel en Washington voor zijn voortbestaan als één concern: zoekmachine én advertentieplatform, dominant in beide markten. Om die strijd te winnen laat het techbedrijf geen middel on...
www.ftm.nl
Last year, @alexfanta.bsky.social and I started collecting data on a decade of meetings between Google and the European Commission. Today, Alex shows how Google influenced people in Brussels to dominate the scene.
Google, the world’s largest search engine operating three in four smartphones, has played Brussels like a fiddle – shaping laws, silencing rivals, and calling it "innovation". The chart shows how Big Tech bankrolls Brussels’ top think tanks.

Read our latest story here: www.ftm.eu/articles/goo...
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
On the “defeat” of the far right in the Netherlands 🇳🇱

The total number of far-right seats in the Tweede Kamer:

2021: 28
2023: 41
2025: 42 👈

And I don’t even count BBB here, which has radicalized significantly in the last year.
The battle between Spain’s Court of Auditors and the far-right party Vox shows no sign of cooling down. Documents obtained by Follow the Money and infoLibre reveal that Vox has escaped two additional sanctions, again over illegal donations.
🇪🇺📬 This week, Bureau Brussels dishes up its usual mix of power plays and political dodges – from MEP immunity battles and Vox’s illegal donations to NATO fund shake-ups and Dutch state aid under EU fire.

🔗 Read the latest edition on our website or app via the link below.
Parliament Clashes Over MEP Immunity in Get-Out-of-Jail Card Showdown
Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism
www.ftm.eu
Today's @eurcorrespond.bsky.social highlighted the joint investigation by @infolibre.es & @ftm.eu ‘Money to the Far Right,’ raising the question: why did Spain’s Vox pay over €1 million in interest to an Orbán-linked bank when far cheaper domestic options were available?
The European Correspondent
europeancorrespondent.com
🚨 Scoop: Spain’s far-right party Vox has been fined a record €1.15 million for illegal donations.

Joint investigation by @ftm.eu and @infolibre.es

👇 read here
Bureau Brussels is back after a busy summer break! This week: Spanish far right fined for illegal donations, new special adviser on defense has little experience with defense and one of the world’s biggest equity firms, KKR, has deeper ties to Israel than previously thought.
It’s back-to-school in Brussels – here’s what you missed
Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism
www.ftm.eu
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
‼️ In March, Huawei’s EU corruption scandal made headlines across the world. Today, @ftm.eu returns with an insiders’ perspective: ten former employees shared their experience with the tech giant’s Brussels office … and its rogue lobbyist. Read the full story for free today www.ftm.eu/articles/hua...
‘This MEP is on my payroll’: Huawei lobbyist bragged about bribery in the office
At a time when Huawei’s reputation hit a new low in Brussels, one man kept the doors to politicians open – until he was arrested for alleged bribery. Now, insiders tell Follow the Money that Huawei’s ...
www.ftm.eu
🇸🇮 Standing ovation in the European Parliament for the visiting Slovenian president Nataša Pirc Musar: “We are witnessing a genocide in the West Bank and still we remain quiet.”
In 2023, before the EU elections, eight institutions reached an agreement to establish an independent watchdog. The EP was one of them. But as majorities have shifted in favour of the (centre) right, so has the appetite for more transparency. Read all about it, and more 📌
www.ftm.eu/newsletters/...
Under scrutiny: a family affair within the European People's Party
Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism
www.ftm.eu
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
KAMPIOENEN!!!! 🤍❤️
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
To sum up - this is an important win for transparency, and makes clear that the EU institutions have to be a lot more accountable in how they handle access requests. Simply saying that texts aren't documents, and therefore they won't even look for them, is a no fly in the future.
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
Today's Pfizergate ruling is a landmark. The EU court clearly said that the Commission was wrong in its decision on the text messages between president Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. The decision can't be read other than as stern rebuke for the Commission.

Some key takeaways 🧵
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
BREAKING - Pfizergate ruling sees win for transparency - Judges rule that the Commission should not have misled @matinastevis.bsky.social about the existence of Ursula von der Leyen's text messages. More details forthcoming.
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
'Je kunt helemaal onderaan bij de klerk beginnen, maar ook meteen bovenaan bij iemand die alles weet. Dat hebben we gedaan', aldus Rieu's zoon en tevens zaakwaarnemer 🇪🇺
Reposted by Lisanne van Vucht
People still believe that we can somehow satisfy the populist policy demands and then people will return to liberal democratic politics as usual. It's an illusion. Giving authoritarians what they want means they will ask for more. This is not only true for Putin, but domestic authoritarians as well