Her party did not “violate any rules” and she “will answer all questions” from the court. Marine Le Pen wanted to display her “serenity” on Monday September 30 at the opening of her trial and that of 24 other people and the National Rally, suspected of having embezzled funds from the European Parliament to pay party employees.
At the opening of the hearing around 1:45 p.m., the president called the defendants one after the other to the stand. Marine Le Pen walks slowly forward, black suit on her back.
“I will answer all the questions that the court wants to ask me”assures the one who cannot help but stiffen up when reading the offenses with which she is accused.
Like the party’s former number 2 Bruno Gollnisch, who recalls that he receives “always threats”she asks not to give her personal address at the bar.
Before entering the room of the Paris criminal court, which will host for two months this trial with heavy political stakes for the leader of the French extreme right, she said in front of the crowd of journalists do “serene”. “We didn’t break any rules.”she said.
Three half days per week
“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”added the president of the RN group to the Assembly.
In the room, she sits in the front row next to Catherine Griset, a very close friend, also judged, who was her assistant in the European Parliament for years.
“By being there, it’s less painful”explains in private the one who intends to attend almost the entirety of her trial and who expresses a “sentiment d’injustice”.
The trial must be held three half-days a week until November 27 – the boss of the RN deputies will however be absent on Tuesday, favoring the general policy declaration of the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier. She should be back Wednesday according to her lawyer.
“Separation of powers”
Flanked by a dozen lawyers, the defendants intend to lead the fight, like the imposing cardboard file that Bruno Gollnisch placed at his feet, crossed out with the words “Arguments”.
However, the substance of the matter should not be addressed before next Monday, 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 (QPC) posed by one of the defense lawyers, Me Laurent de Caunes, in front of an audience of defendants nodding their heads during a pleading aimed at demonstrating the impossibility of prosecution.
At the end, Bruno Gollnisch stands up: “Just a minute, Madam President, if I may, precisely on the subject of constitutionality?”
“Uh…”, replies President Bénédicte de Perthuis – generally it is the lawyers rather than the defendants who speak at this stage -, nevertheless authorizing the former MEP to hammer home the fact that “this entire procedure is contrary to the constitutional principle of separation of powers”.
After a suspension of the hearing, during which Marine Le Pen gave an unusual informal press conference in the courtroom, the court rejected the request for transmission of the QPC. And followed up with another procedural question.
The “disjointed” Jean-Marie Le Pen case
In total, nine former MEPs from the National Front (renamed RN), including Marine Le Pen, are appearing alongside 12 people who were their parliamentary assistants, and four party collaborators.
The court formally ordered at the start of the hearing the separation of the cases of Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96 years old, and former MEP Jean-François Jalkh, their state of health not allowing them either “to be present” ni de “prepare their defense”.
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).
What do the defendants risk?
For the prosecution which denounces the establishment of a “centralized system” to the party, these “assistants”, although struggling to describe their tasks, they 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.
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 crime, face ten years of imprisonment and a fine of one million euros, as well as a ten-year ineligibility sentence likely to hinder presidential ambitions. by Marine Le Pen for 2027.
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 hearing was adjourned around 7:30 p.m., and will resume Tuesday with other procedural matters.
