Patrick Maisonneuve, lawyer for the European Parliament, said Thursday, November 14 on franceinfo “rather hostile to provisional execution” penalties “because we must be able to go before the court of appeal in a completely efficient manner”.
The day before, the prosecution demanded five years in prison, including two years, against Marine Le Pen, boss of RN deputies, tried with 24 other defendants at the Paris court for embezzlement of public funds as part of the trial of FN parliamentary assistants .
The prosecutor requested a five-year ineligibility sentence with provisional execution. Marine le Pen would therefore risk not being able to run in the presidential election in 2027 if the court followed these requisitions, even in the event of an appeal. “From there, when we begin to carry out a sentence when we appear before the court of appeal and half of the sentence has already been carried out, that is of completely relative interest”he believes.
However, the lawyer does not understand the “protestations” and the “screams of horror” in reaction to the additional penalty of ineligibility. “This is something quite common and for offenses which are of much less importance”he emphasizes. The former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, estimated that he “would be deeply shocking“ that Marine Le Pen be deemed ineligible and thus “not to stand before the suffrage of the French”.
Patrick Maisonneuve recalls that “the magistrates apply the texts which are voted on by the parliamentarians”. “Provisional execution exists in the law”, insists the lawyer. “We still need to know what the legislator wants.”he said. As soon as“we are actually starting to approach political leaders, from that moment on, the judges become conspiracy theorists. It’s sad. We’re still here in 2024. We could have hoped that morals would have evolved. This is clearly not the case.”he regrets.
Patrick Maisonneuve recalls the facts alleged against the FN: “It was a centralized system which had been put in place by, initially, Jean-Marie Le Pen, president of the National Front, then taken over by Marine Le Pen as the new president of the National Front”he explains. According to him, given the importance of the sums involved, “there is real consistency on the part of the prosecutor” and the requisitions are “no surprise”.
Furthermore, the lawyer was ironic about the reactions within Marine Le Pen’s party: “The elected representatives of the National Rally are the first to ask, when there are thefts, for example of 100 euros, that the person responsible be judged severely immediately and punished without delay. This is their almost daily position in terms of communication on the sets, the radios, by effectively calling for severe and immediate and rapid justice, except for them”, he remarks.
