Pro-Armenian western lobbyists between the devil and the deep sea over dirty dealings After Menendez, Wauquiez and Huitfeldt are under fire

Following Senator Bob Menendez, who is being closely targeted by American prosecutors, clouds began to gather over other Armenian lobbyists in the West. This time, the leader of the French right-wing opposition, Laurent Wauquiez, was targeted for his long tongue, as was Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, who was suspected of financial dishonesty.

According to Reuters, Laurent Wauquiez came under attack for taped comments in which he sneered at politicians in his camp and the government using crude language, prompting a senior party member to quit.

Laurent Wauquiez, 42, president of the conservative Les Republicains party, also ridiculed former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying she had no charisma and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is too politically correct.

Wauquiez, whose party is the largest opposition group in parliament, said back in December that he intended to make life more difficult for President Emmanuel Macron in parliament.

However, his hardline stance on immigration has already caused several senior moderates, including former Prime Minister Alain Juppé, to distance themselves from the party's policies.

An opinion poll conducted by Elabe for the French television channel BFM TV on October 18 showed that 57% of those surveyed found Wauquiez's remarks "shocking".

A new controversy that has received widespread publicity in France involves recordings broadcast by French television channel TMC in which Wauquiez appears to be trying to impress business school students with a "cool" speech.

He calls one of his party's senior politicians "stupid" and adds that he himself often talks "nonsense" in interviews. Wauquiez sometimes resorts to rude language when criticizing Macron's supporters, influential representatives of his party.

"When I heard Wauquiez's comments, I first thought he was trying to play the 'cool big brother' to students and then say he regretted his comments," former transport minister Dominique Bussereau told Reuters on October 18.

After Wauquiez said on October 17 evening TV show that he stood by his opinion in the name of freedom of speech, Dominique Bussereau decided to leave Les Republicains party.

“Wauquiez has given the party a right-wing style that flatters the lower classes. But if the party wants to win elections again one day, it must be able to attract a wider range of people and not be stuck on such a narrow line,” Bussereau said.

An EU lawmaker and the mayor of a city in eastern France also announced their resignation from the party in protest at Wauquiez's remarks.

In one recording, Wauquiez can be heard telling Lyon business school students that they would be in trouble if any of them spread his comments.

Let us recall that Laurent Wauquiez is considered one of the pro-Armenian lobbyists in France - he openly supported the puppet entity in Karabakh and repeatedly called for the introduction of sanctions against Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, according to Politico, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt was fired by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre as part of a government reshuffle after it was revealed that her husband had made financial deals that could have affected her work as minister.

In August, Huitfeldt herself said that her husband Ola Petter Flem had traded shares in companies that could influence her decisions as foreign minister, including arms manufacturer Kongsberg Gruppen, in which the Norwegian state is a major shareholder.

“Issues regarding the purchase and sale of shares and competence are one of the reasons for Huitfeldt’s removal from office,” the Norwegian prime minister said.

“Trust is something we should worry about and be responsible for. We are doing this today,” Støre added, explaining that the ruling Labor Party, which currently heads a minority coalition government with the Center Party, was hit by scandal in recent local elections.

Labor MP Huitfeldt, 53, widely considered Støre's protégé and who has held several ministerial posts under Labor governments, confirmed the news on her social media page X. She has served as foreign minister since October 2021.

Huitfeldt then admitted that she knew that her husband owned some shares, but did not know which companies he was associated with, and in August, she promised that she would remain in her post.

However, the scandal quickly affected the election results: in September, the Labor Party lost to the center-right opposition in local elections for the first time in 99 years.

Huitfeldt is also well known for her pro-Armenian stance. Thus, in 2022, during negotiations with Ararat Mirzoyan in Armenia, Huitfeldt made a number of unfounded accusations against Baku, claiming that Azerbaijan allegedly kept the Armenians of Karabakh under blockade, who supposedly as a result of this “faced a humanitarian crisis”.