The European Parliament's lawyer on Tuesday mocked “repeated memory lapses”, “oral tradition” to explain the lack of working proof, or “the improbable versions” of the 25 defendants.
Published on 12/11/2024 19:08
Reading time: 2min
He denounced the line of defense chosen by the National Rally and Marine Le Pen. At the trial of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front (the former name of the RN), Patrick Maisonneuve, lawyer for the European Parliament, estimated, Tuesday November 12, that most of the defendants were “quite prisoners of a system of collective defense, which sometimes bordered on the absurd.”
The far-right party is “centralized, hierarchical”he stressed. The latter mocked “repeated memory lapses”the “oral tradition” to explain the lack of proof of work, or “the improbable versions” of the 25 defendants – mostly former MEPs and their parliamentary assistants, tried for embezzlement of public funds and concealment of this crime. According to the prosecution, a “system” was set up, between 2004 and 2016, to pay parliamentary assistants who actually worked for the party with money from the European Parliament.
Patrick Maisonneuve was ironic about the “reconstructed press reviews” by Nicolas Bay, on Julien Odoul who had written that he would be “ravi” to meet his MEP… even though he had officially been his parliamentary assistant for several months. “It could make you smile, if not for the image it sends”he continued, recalling that Julien Odoul is today a deputy and spokesperson for the RN.
The matter is far from “conspiracy”of the procedure “policy” long criticized by the party, said the lawyer, recalling that another party, the MoDem, was recently judged for similar facts. The European Parliament estimated the damage at 4.5 million euros, but only claimed 3.4 million (a part having already been reimbursed). He also claims 300,000 euros in moral damages, taking into account “all the bad” said of the European Parliament by the defendants.
