The trial in the case of assistants to MEPs from the French far-right National Front party, now National Rally, opens Monday September 30 before the Paris Criminal Court. The party itself, its president Marine Le Pen and 24 other people, executives, ex-MEPs or parliamentary assistants are suspected of having embezzled funds from the European Parliament to pay assistants to MEPs who actually worked for the party, between 2004 and 2016.
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At the end of seven years of investigationthe prosecution believes it has uncovered A ” real system » diversion. This was thanks to monthly envelopes of 21,000 euros allocated by parliament to each deputy to pay parliamentary assistants, while the National Front (subsequently renamed National Rally) was in financial difficulty. Marine Le Pen was “ the main decision maker in fine » of this system, maintains the prosecution.
Among the elements incriminated, an email from June 2014 sent to the president of the party: “ We will only get out of this if we make significant savings thanks to the European Parliament », alerts the treasurer. MEPs testified that during a meeting at the same period, Marine Le Pen would have demanded that they “ recruit a single assistant on their own, the rest of their budget having to be made available to the movement “. One of the parliamentarians immediately wrote to the treasurer: “ what Marine asks of us is equivalent to signing for fictitious jobs “.
For their part, the RN and its members refute any misappropriation of public funds, especially since “ parliamentary assistants are not employees of parliament, and also have a political role » insists Alexandre Varaut, appointed by the party to comment on this issue. “ And there is no system otherwise all the party’s MEPs would be prosecuted », he points out.
“There is no system, there has been no fraudulent system,” insists Alexandre Varaut of the RN
The defendants face a maximum of ten years in prison, a fine of one million euros and a possible ten-year ineligibility sentence. This would then be likely to hinder the presidential ambitions of Marine Le Pen in France for 2027.
The damage is estimated at three million euros, of which one million has already been “ refunded » through recovery procedures, according to Me Patrick Maisonneuve. The European Parliament’s lawyer believes that the prosecution has solid evidence to support the existence of what she describes as ” real system “.
“The prosecutors and investigating judges concluded that it was Ms. Marine Le Pen who was indeed the main instigator of this embezzlement of public funds,” according to Me Patrick Maisonneuve