Was a Member of the European Parliament caught snorting cocaine during a public meeting?

Twitter users have accused a Member of the European Parliament of being caught red-handed snorting cocaine during a public meeting. 

The claim was shared thousands of times in numerous languages on Twitter. One English-speaking user said: “Remarkable to see a member of the European Parliament using cocaine during a meeting.”

In the video clip, a man is seen sniffing some sort of substance from his hand. The Cube decided to take a closer look at these allegations and we found them to be misleading. 

By conducting a reverse image search, Euronews identified the person in the video as Jens Maier, a former judge and German politician (member of the far-right populist party AfD). 

He was never a member of European Parliament but was part of the German Bundestag until 2021. 

According to German media, Jens Maier lost his judgeship in 2022 because he was deemed a right-wing extremist and could no longer be a “credible representative of the judiciary.” 

Euronews found the original video which was taken from a news report by ARD, a German regional public TV channel. The subject is whether AfD politicians could be civil servants at the same time. 

If you take a closer look between 04:42 until 05:08, you can see Maier sitting in the German parliament hall. Due to the high quality of the video, it’s clear to see that the substance on his hand is of a brown colour.

Multiple social media users noted the substance is most likely to be snuff, which is a dry smokeless product made from finely ground tobacco leaves.

It’s traditionally inhaled through the nose and is legal for personal use in Germany and in other European countries. 

In an interview with German TV, Jens Maier even explained his biggest weaknesses are “fried potatoes and snuff.”