Marine Le Pen, along with her father Jean-Marie Le Pen and twenty-five other members of the National Rally (RN), will be tried from September 30th to November 27th by the Paris Criminal Court. This comes as a blow to the far-right party just weeks before the European elections. The magistrates suspect the RN representatives of having set up, between 2004 and 2016, a “systematic diversion” of the monthly allowances (€21,000) allocated by the European Union to each MEP to pay parliamentary assistants who actually worked, in whole or in part, for the RN, allowing substantial savings on salaries. Marine Le Pen, who has always denied these accusations, will be charged with embezzlement of public funds and complicity.
The court will decide on July 3rd, after the opinion of experts, whether Jean-Marie Le Pen, 95 years old, is able to prepare his defense and attend the trial. His lawyer, François Wagner, stated that “Mr. Le Pen can no longer move and his faculties are significantly impaired”. The founder of the National Front (FN) – renamed RN in 2018 – is being prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds and complicity, just like his daughter. If the experts determine that Mr. Le Pen is not able to appear in court, he should be represented by his daughter Marie-Caroline Le Pen. Among the other accused are Louis Aliot, the mayor of Perpignan, former FN deputy leader Bruno Gollnisch, Vice President of Reconquista!, Nicolas Bay, former FN treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just, as well as lawmaker and RN spokesperson Julien Odoul.
The case came to light in 2015 following an anonymous report to the European Parliament services. They quickly noted that twenty of the eighty employees mentioned in the National Front’s organization chart also held positions as parliamentary assistants to an MEP of the party. The European Parliament referred the case to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and to French justice, which initiated a preliminary investigation on December 15, 2016. Marine Le Pen was indicted in June 2017 for “breach of trust” and “complicity”, charges later requalified as “embezzlement of public funds”. The European Parliament, as a civil party, estimated its damages at €6.8 million for the years 2009 to 2017.
In total, eleven people who were elected as MEPs on FN lists, twelve others who were their parliamentary assistants, and four party employees are to be tried. The trial will determine whether the RN representatives were involved in a deliberate scheme to divert EU funds to pay their salaries, significantly affecting the party’s finances. Marine Le Pen’s denial of the accusations and her upcoming trial, along with the uncertainty surrounding Jean-Marie Le Pen’s ability to participate in the proceedings, add to the complexity and significance of this legal battle for the National Rally and its members. The outcome of this trial will likely have far-reaching implications for the future of the party and its leadership.
