Her party has “not violated any rules” and she “will answer all questions”. Marine Le Pen displayed her “serenity” on Monday at the opening of her trial and that of twenty-four other people and the National Rally, suspected of having embezzled funds from the European Parliament to pay party employees. “We have a lot of arguments to develop to defend what appears to me to be the parliamentary freedom which is at issue in this affair,” explained the president of the RN group to the Assembly.
In total, nine former MEPs from the National Front (renamed RN), including Marine Le Pen, appear alongside twelve people who were their parliamentary assistants, and four party collaborators. The trial is scheduled to take place three half-days a week until November 27.
A period of more than ten years
The case began in 2015 with a report from the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and concerns numerous parliamentary attaché contracts over a period of more than ten years (2004-2016).
For the accusation which denounces the establishment of a “centralized system” in the party, these “assistants”, very difficult to describe their tasks, only had the title. Some had never even met their official employer or set foot in Parliament and, according to the accusation, only worked for the party – which is prohibited under European regulations.
Defendants face up to ten years of ineligibility
These include the historic bodyguard of FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Thierry Légier, his secretary, Marine Le Pen’s chief of staff, Catherine Griset, and even the party’s graphic designer.
The defendants, tried in particular for embezzlement of public funds or complicity in this offense, face ten years of imprisonment and a fine of one million euros, as well as a ten-year ineligibility sentence. The European Parliament, civil party, estimated its financial damage at three million euros. He will only claim two million, one million having already been reimbursed (which is not an admission of guilt, assured the RN).
The case of Jean-Marie Le Pen disjointed
However, the substance of the matter should not be discussed before October 7, the first days being devoted to procedural questions and the reading of the report scheduled for Wednesday. The debates opened with a priority question of constitutionality posed by one of the defense lawyers, Laurent de Caunes, during a pleading aimed at demonstrating the impossibility of prosecution. A request rejected by the court.
The court formally ordered at the start of the hearing the separation of the cases of Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96, and former MEP Jean-François Jalkh, their state of health not allowing them “to be present » nor to “prepare their defense”.
