Trial of RN parliamentary assistants: penalty of ineligibility required against Marine Le Pen

The announcement came. The prosecution requested on Wednesday November 13 in Paris five years in prison, including two years in prison which could be adjusted, a fine of 300,000 euros and five years of ineligibility against Marine Le Pen in the affair of the RN parliamentary assistants. In her indictment, she considered that the leader of the French extreme right was at “centre” of a “organized system” aimed at making the European Parliament the “cash cow” of the National Rally. Hence the high demands from the prosecution, which demanded that his sentence be accompanied by a “provisional execution”, which means that if the court follows the prosecution, this ban would be applicable from the conviction, including in case of appeal.

More broadly, the prosecution called for the conviction of all the defendants, including the RN judged as a legal entity, for whom it requested a fine of 4.3 million euros, including a firm 2 million euros. In addition, the public prosecutor's office requires in particular 18 months in prison including six months closed with three years of ineligibility against the No. 2 of the party Louis Aliot; 10 months suspended sentence and one year of ineligibility against RN spokesperson Julien Odoul; 18 months suspended sentence and two years of ineligibility for Marine Le Pen's sister, Yann Le Pen. With each time, fines and provisional execution.

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Shortly after the decision, Marine Le Pen reacted to this request from the prosecution. “It's not a surprise, I suspected it from the fourth day”, she said in reaction to the requisitions, calling on the court not to “not follow” these requests from the prosecution. “The only thing they want is to deprive me and deprive the French of their ability to vote for whoever they want. That’s the only thing that interests the prosecution,” she said, referring to the 2027 presidential election in which she could be prevented from participating if the requisitions were followed.

A little later, on the X platform, the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, denounced these requisitions as “an attack on democracy”. “The prosecution is not in justice, it is in relentlessness and revenge against Marine Le Pen. Its scandalous requisitions aim to deprive millions of French people of their vote in 2027,” he said. he writes.

An “unprecedented partisan enrichment”

The prosecution justified its requisitions with a “organized system” which according to him was put in place at the National Front (now RN) between 2004 and 2016, consisting of concluding agreements “artificial contracts” European parliamentary assistants who actually worked for the party. For the prosecution, we must sanction “unprecedented partisan enrichment”by his “duration” (more than 10 years), its “magnitude” (4.5 million euros) and its “organized, systematized character”.

The defense is due to plead starting Monday and the trial is scheduled to end on November 27. The court will not make its decision for several months.