France: Marine Le Pen risks prison and ineligibility

She was at the “center” of an “organized system” aimed at making the European Parliament a “cash cow”: the prosecution demanded five years in prison on Wednesday in Paris, including two years in prison that could be adjusted and five years of ineligibility against Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French far right, threatening her presidential ambitions for 2027.

The requested prison sentence is flexible, which means that the leader of the National Rally (RN) would not necessarily go to prison.

But it could prevent him from running in the 2027 presidential election: the prosecution has in fact demanded that the penalty of ineligibility be accompanied by provisional execution, that is to say that it applies immediately, even if called.

“The law applies to everyone”

Such a sentence “would prohibit the defendants from running in future local or national elections,” said prosecutor Nicolas Barret in front of the three-time presidential candidate seated in the first row of the 24 defendants – party executives, ex-MEPs and former parliamentary assistants.

But “we are here in a judicial forum and the law applies to everyone”, justice cannot be accountable for the political “ambitions” of each person.

“I think that the will of the prosecution is to deprive the French of the ability to vote for those they want” and to “ruin the party”, Marine Le Pen reacted to journalists as she left the audience, while A fine of 300,000 euros was requested against him and a fine of 4.3 million euros, including 2 million euros firm, for his party.

“The prosecution is not in justice, it is in relentlessness and revenge against Marine Le Pen. His scandalous requisitions aim to deprive millions of French people of their vote in 2027. It is an attack on democracy,” complained the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, on X.

The prosecution depicted in its indictment on Wednesday an “organized system” of misappropriation of public funds to the detriment of the European Parliament, with “artificial contracts” of parliamentary assistants in order to “save” money for the party.

“We are not here today because of relentlessness”, nor because of a denunciation “from the European Parliament”, but at the end of “a long judicial investigation”, declared from the outset at the beginning of indictment one of the two representatives of the prosecution, Louise Neyton.

In turn, throughout their requisitions, the two prosecutors detailed the architecture of a “system” which, according to them, was put in place at the National Front (now National Rally) between 2004 and 2016, consisting of hiring assistants “fictitious” European parliamentarians who actually worked for the party.

“Standard proof”

The European Parliament only carries out “accounting checks”, for the rest it “trusts” MEPs in the use of their monthly allocation of 21,000 euros: “So, it’s too tempting, these envelopes will appear as a windfall and be used as such,” insisted the magistrate.

And this “system”, says the accusation, will “strengthen” with the arrival, in 2011, of Marine Le Pen at the head of the party, with an employee responsible for managing European contracts, who reports “only » to the president, the “order giver”.

In 2014, after the election of around twenty FN MEPs, the party’s treasurer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, wrote: “We will only get out of this if we make significant savings thanks to the European Parliament”, recalled the prosecutor.

And to mention the emails talking about “financial arrangements”, “transfers” from a particular assistant “to” a particular MP depending on the availability of envelopes.

Faced with “the alternative fiction” proposed in defense, the prosecutors then delve at length into the details of the case. Defended by accused and contract by contract, they dissect for each “the nature of the work” carried out by the 12 parliamentary assistants, the “link of subordination” that they maintain with “their European deputy” – nine of whom Marine Le Pen are judged in total, for embezzlement of public funds.

With a general observation. As proof of work, “there is nothing”, except “the famous standard proof: the press review”. Employment contracts? “Artificial”, without “coherence” – “we are very happy with someone but we separate from them, then we take them back”, comments Nicolas Barret.

“Declarations with variable geometry”, or even “anything”, summarizes Louise Neyton.

The European Parliament estimated its financial damage at 4.5 million euros, but only claimed 3.4 million (a part having been reimbursed).

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