At the trial of FN parliamentary assistants, the defense puts forward the calendar argument

The court was packed on Wednesday, November 27, for the twenty-sixth and final day of the trial of the National Front (FN) aides at the European Parliament: the room was half made up of journalists, the other half of those close to the National Rally , who came to laugh at a few witty words from Marine Le Pen's lawyer.

The 11th chamber of the Paris court will deliver its judgment on March 31, 2025, a judgment which will be closely scrutinized, with the central issue being the question of the ineligibility of M^me Le Pen. However, Mᵉ Rodolphe Bosselut, the last defense lawyer, had time to raise a few points which, if they were followed by the court, would not impose this automatic ineligibility on the three-time presidential candidate.

Very active throughout the hearing, M^e Bosselut had made a specialty of long questions so closed that the defendant could only answer yes or no; fortunately, they always contained a clue to the correct answer, to avoid any hazards. Marine Le Pen's lawyer pleaded Wednesday for three long hours with the sole support of a bottle of water, citing four times The World which he reads conscientiously, certainly with increasing irritation.

He immediately attacked the heart of the prosecution, the possible ineligibility of Marine Le Pen, against whom the prosecution demanded five years in prison, three of which were suspended, a 300,000 euro fine and five years of ineligibility, with provisional execution, that is to say applicable immediately, without waiting for a possible appeal.

Mᵉ Bosselut warned that he risked being ” boring ” : the point is a little technical, but certainly decisive. Marine Le Pen is in fact being prosecuted on two counts: as an “author”, for having hired four assistants, and as an “accomplice by instruction”, as party leader, for eight other assistants, “ on nine contracts only, because she was not responsible for the FN before January 2011” – it was then his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the movement.

A matter of dates

As an author, the Pas-de-Calais MP is being prosecuted for having embezzled public funds by hiring four supposed parliamentary assistants, and it is a matter, precisely, of dates.

Thierry Légier, the bodyguard, was twice assistant to Marine Le Pen, from September to December 2009, then from October to December 2011. Catherine Griset, the faithful secretary who became the president's chief of staff, the was from December 2010 to October 2016. Guillaume L'Huillier, Jean-Marie Le Pen's chief of staff, and especially close to Bruno Gollnisch, was not employed by Marine Le Pen only from November 2009 to June 2011. Finally Micheline Bruna, the patriarch's secretary, was Marine Le Pen's parliamentary assistant for only one day, December 3, 2008, “due to increased activity” – in reality to clear the envelope for Marine Le Pen granted by Parliament.

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