Will justice still be “too lax”? The trial of Marine Le Pen, and 24 other people linked to the RN, opens this Monday in Paris. They are being tried for embezzlement of public funds, in this case those of the European Parliament. After a complaint filed in 2015 and nine years of investigation, the conclusion of the affair of fictitious jobs of RN parliamentary assistants is expected on November 30.
Who will be at the helm? What do Marine Le Pen and the other defendants risk? What are the incriminating elements? What is the party’s defense? 20 Minutes sums it up for you.
Why is this trial being held?
The affair began in 2015, with a report from the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz on parliamentary assistant contracts, then covering a period from 2004 to 2016. He suspected these assistants, who had all the trouble in the world to explain what their work consisted of during the investigation, being fictitious jobs.
However, the salaries of European parliamentary assistants are paid by Brussels, via the envelope allocated to European deputies. In the case of these fictitious jobs, the prosecution suspects the RN of having diverted part of this envelope for the benefit of the party coffers.
Who is in the dock?
She could be the main character in this trial. Marine Le Pen, former party leader and former presidential candidate, favorite in the polls for the 2027 presidential election, is also the one who has the most to lose. Suspected of having set up the embezzlement system, she risks up to 10 years in prison, a million euro fine, and ten years of ineligibility.
At his side, former or current party executives, such as Louis Alliot, historic figure of the RN and mayor of Perpignan, Bruno Gollnisch, the former right-hand man of Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Nicolas Bay, ex-party executive who has since joined Eric Zemmour. In total, nine elected officials, old or new, including Marine Le Pen, are on the dock.
There they rub shoulders with twelve assistants suspected of having been fictitious jobs, like Catherine Griset, chief of staff of Marine Le Pen, a position that she combined during five mandates with that of assistant. Thierry Légier, former bodyguard of Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Yann Le Pen are also there, as is Julien Odoul, the party’s hypermedia spokesperson. Wallerand de Saint-Just, former party treasurer, is also accused of complicity, as are Charles van Houtte and two accountants. Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was also suspected in this affair, will not appear due to his state of health.
What are the most incriminating elements against the RN?
The investigators first noted several “inconsistencies” and “ anomalies ” in the conditions of employment of the famous assistants, in particular on their location or their missions. Some only set foot in Brussels very late. This is for example the case of Julien Odoul who, four months after the start of his contract, sent a message to Marine Le Pen. “Marine, would it be possible for me to come to Strasbourg tomorrow to see how a session is going” in Parliament “and to meet Mylène Troszczynski to whom I report? », he wrote in February 2015. “Yes of course”, validates the party leader.
The intention to create a system to divert money from the European Parliament is a key element of the accusation. However, in June 2014, treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just insisted to Marine Le Pen on the need to replenish the party’s coffers. “We will only get out of this if we make significant savings thanks to the European Parliament,” he writes. Contracts lasting just one day have also attracted the attention of investigators.
And in this case, certain defendants spoke, evoking a meeting with Marine Le Pen in Brussels, during which she allegedly asked that they “recruit a single assistant by themselves, the rest of their envelope having to be made available to the movement “. “What Marine is asking us is tantamount to signing up for fictitious jobs,” wrote one of the MEPs to Wallerand de Saint-Just at the end of the meeting.
What is the RN’s line of defense?
For the investigating judges, these elements prove the “systemic nature of the embezzlements”, which have become “a means of financing the party”. But on the RN side, we are screaming about “political” trial and “relentlessness”. “We have nothing to reproach ourselves for in this matter,” declared in the Parisian mid-September Marine Le Pen, speaking of “incomprehension between the legal world and the political world”.
According to her, parliamentary assistants are “not employees of the European Parliament” and are “obviously intended, for a certain number of them, to engage in politics”. Several defendants also mentioned a “pooling” of the work of parliamentary assistants, who also turn out to be party employees (graphic designer, monitoring and perspective center, responsible for monitoring departmental elections, etc.), to explain the lack of relations with the MEPs. Employees “paid differently” from 2009, according to the table kept by Wallerand de Saint-Just.
