Donald Trump is fighting to stop Congress getting hold of his financial records and tax returns. Nigel Farage refuses to tell the European parliament why he didn’t declare personal expenses funded by Arron Banks, the Brexit donor being investigated by Britain’s National Crime Agency. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking immunity to ward off pending prosecutions for corruption, fraud and breach of trust.
Austria’s government was brought down by a video of Heinz-Christian Strache, the far-right vice-chancellor, telling a mysterious Russian that he could arrange government contracts if she would secretly donate to his party. Argentina’s ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, now running for vice-president, is on trial for allegedly leading a criminal organisation and taking kickbacks. And Czech police have recommended charging billionaire prime minister Andrej Babiš with subsidy fraud.
There seems to be a pattern here. Populists who were elected promising to “drain the swamp”, as Trump liked to say, are now being accused of wallowing in it. Dangerously for them, they are losing control of the political issue of corruption.