Marine Le Pen speaks at the trial of RN parliamentary assistants for the first time

JUSTICE – A first speech. Marine Le Pen spoke this Wednesday, October 2 at the bar during the trial of parliamentary assistants of the National Front (now National Rally) which began two days earlier. She denounced a file where “everything is suspicious”.

franceinfo journalist Catherine Fournier tweeted live throughout the day’s hearing, which ended late with the head of the RN deputies speaking in the National Assembly. She was heard not as a defendant but as a representative of the RN.

“I have the feeling that in this matter there is a lot ofa prioripreconceived ideas fabricated by the civil party. I think it is very important to list these preconceived ideas that the investigating judge adopted”she began.

“The leadership of the European Parliament is not neutral”

So that’s what she did, initially pointing to Martin Schulz. It was he, then socialist president of the European Parliament, who reported to the courts the inconsistencies in the party’s organizational chart. Indeed, a large part of those who were supposed to be parliamentary assistants to MEPs from the far-right party were included in the FN organizational chart.

“The leadership of the European Parliament is not a neutral leadership, it is a political leadership, Martin Schulz is a politician who has had political responsibilities”she pointed out, believing that the German’s report hid partisan motivations.

And to insist: “It would still be quite dishonest not to admit, for the civil party, that we are the bête noire of the administration of the European Parliament. The idea of ​​having MPs who can fight against the EU and its excesses is something that is disturbing. »

A party with finances in the red

Marine Le Pen felt that it was not « suspect » more ” logic ” that parliamentary assistants are also party members. As for the party’s financial difficulties, she replied: “Which party is not? » The FN is accused of having used the envelopes of MEPs to pay members of the party, whose finances were in the red.

Nine former FN MEPs, including Marine Le Pen, are appearing alongside 12 people who were their parliamentary assistants, and four party collaborators – also on trial. They are accused of embezzlement of public funds, concealment or complicity in this crime. Marine Le Pen notably risks a sentence of ten years of ineligibility, likely to hinder her presidential ambitions.

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