THE PEN. Marine Le Pen claims to want to “give back their money to the French”. Pending her possible election on Sunday April 24, she is suspected of having embezzled 137,000 euros from the European Union, as a deputy. This Monday, the far-right candidate is in Normandy to convince potential voters.
The essential
- Marine Le Pen continues her campaign of the 2nd round of the 2022 presidential election, with a trip this Monday to Caen, in Normandy.
- RN candidate hopes to distract from embarrassing case for her, revealed this weekend by Mediapart. Since it is about embezzlement, of which she is accused by a report of the Anti-Fraud Office of the European Union. Facts “likely to give rise to criminal proceedings”, according to the report. The candidate would have wrongly received 137,000 euros. The case concerns a total of four deputies from his party, for a total of more than 600,000 euros. In addition, his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, allegedly embezzled more than 300,000 euros.
- Poll results give at this stage Marine Le Pen behind Emmanuel Macron in the voting intentions, but with only ten points behind.
- Follow the latest news from Marine Le Pen in this campaign between the two rounds of this 2022 presidential election.
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10:38 – Change of program for Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen had announced a trip to Caen, in Calvados, and had given journalists an appointment at 9:30 a.m. Finally, she is forty kilometers away, in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dive, on a market.
09:59 – Misappropriation of public funds? “Stink Bombs”
“Marine Le Pen disputes the facts. She had no documents, Mediapart did. It’s just called stink balls”, declared on FranceInfo Philippe Ballard, communications director of Marine Le Pen. He was questioned about the new European Union report which accuses the far-right candidate of having embezzled 137,000 euros in the European Parliament.
09:44 – The mayor of Fréjus rakes in the voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon
David Rachline, mayor of Fréjus and vice-president of the RN, tried this morning to convince those who voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, to join Marine Le Pen in the second round. “We want to defend our social protection model, we are clear on retirement. On many subjects, we can come together,” he said on Sud Radio.
09:39 – Marine Le Pen wants to change the European Union
Guest of Franceinfo this Sunday, Jordan Bardella announced that Marine Le Pen’s first trip, if elected president, would be to Brussels. Without mentioning the 137,000 euros that the European Parliament accuses the presidential candidate of having embezzled. It would rather be a question of putting in place a reform of the European Union: “We want to transform this EU which does not work into a European alliance of nations. We want the French State and the European nations to regain essential prerogatives,” did he declare.
09:31 – Marine Le Pen once again suspected of embezzlement
The presidential candidate has once again found herself at the heart of an investigation by Mediapart, revealing the accusations of embezzlement by Olaf (the Anti-Fraud Office of the European Union). The RN candidate is suspected of having embezzled 137,000 euros in the European Parliament. It is recalled that in 2016, this body had already requested from Marine Le Pen the reimbursement of 339,000 euros in funds, considered to be the result of embezzlement.
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At the end of the first round of the 2022 presidential election, Marine Le Pen came second with 23.15% of the vote, behind Emmanuel Macron with 27.85% of the vote. The National Rally candidate only got 420,000 votes more than Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who failed in third place with 21.95% of the vote. Marine Le Pen nevertheless obtained a better score than in 2017 (20.3%) and won almost 500,000 more votes (8.1 million voters against 7.6 5 years ago). Its best results are recorded in the departments of northern and eastern France. The candidate came first in 20,000 municipalities out of the approximately 36,000 in the country.
Marine Le Pen has promised to “put France back in order by ensuring the protection of the French”. Several axes were put forward in his program during the campaign such as a “progressive system” allowing retirement from the age of 60, a triptych “protect, plan, transmit”, the superiority of constitutional law over European law to “restore the EU in its place”. It also intends to stop immigration, fight Islamism and raise purchasing power, with the aim of “giving back their money” and “their country” to the French.
The Macron – Le Pen confrontation was quite expected and has already been the subject of numerous polls before and after the first round. Each time, Emmanuel Macron has so far been given the winner of the election, but with a gap that varies according to the sequences and the institutes. Marine Le Pen is sometimes given only 1 to 2 points behind, which is very clearly within the margin of error of the pollsters. As a reminder, during the last presidential election, Marine Le Pen was largely beaten in the second round with 33.90% of the vote against 66.10% for Emmanuel Macron.