Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), sits this Monday at 1:30 p.m. in the dock in the Paris court for a case of diversion of European funds to her party. His arrival at the Palace of Justice, before the entire French political scene was blown up with the dissolution of the National Assembly last June, was going to be the most relevant moment of the rentrée. Not only because of the size of the characters who sit on the dock, 27 members of his party and the formation itself as a legal entity, but because of the consequences that a negative outcome could have for its main protagonist: a political disqualification that It would put his participation in the 2027 presidential elections at risk.
The so-called fictitious jobs scandal was, supposedly, an action directed by the leadership of Le Pen’s French far-right party to use the funds it received from Brussels between 2009 and 2017, a period in which the party had much more presence in Europe ―and therefore subsidies― than in France, for functions outside its legal perimeter. Brussels then raised to 6.8 million euros the amount from which the RN benefited through a “fraudulent system of diversion of funds” that, fundamentally, used the money to pay assistants in the European Parliament for domestic matters of the formation. in France.
The defendants are suspected, according to the French magistrates who carried out the investigation since the end of 2016, of having launched “in a concerted and deliberate manner” during that period a “diversion system” of the 21,000 euros per month allocated by the EU. to each MEP to remunerate their parliamentary assistants. The latter would have actually worked all or part of their time for the RN, thus allowing the party considerable savings in salaries.
Le Pen, who has always denied these accusations, will be indicted for misappropriation of public funds and complicity. He faces, among other things, a disqualification sentence of up to 10 years, which could affect his aspirations for the 2027 presidential elections. But the party trusts in being able to delay the final resolution to avoid the key moment of the elections. .
If the disqualification is issued with a suspended sentence, as happened with the accused of the Democratic Movement – the other French political party that went through a similar process -, it would not be applied unless Le Pen commits another infraction within the period set by the court. In the case of a final sentence, the resources could work in favor of the future candidate and allow her to avoid the electoral deadlines. The decision should be known in early 2025.
The father of the current leader of the RN, the founder of the former National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96 years old, as well as 11 other MEPs in that period, such as Louis Aliot (current mayor of Perpignan) and the RN himself, also They are accused. They are accused of having embezzled public funds and being complicit in this crime. Jean-Marie Le Pen, however, will not be present at the trial due to his health condition, considered incompatible with a hearing. In fact, his presence on television, quite regular until his state of health was determined, has already been cancelled.
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The experts who examined the former president and co-founder of the National Front – which in 2018 became the RN – at his home on June 19 were able to confirm “a profound deterioration in his physical and psychological capacities,” reported Bénédicte de Perthuis, president of the 11th correctional chamber of the judicial court of Paris.
The process has a direct impact on French political life, just at the moment in which Le Pen’s party has become the arbiter of the contest. After an unforeseen result in the last elections, much worse than what the party predicted, Macron encouraged the RN by rejecting the left’s proposal to form a government. The far-right party – with 126 deputies and 10 million votes – now holds the key to the continuity of the new Executive of the prime minister, the conservative Michel Barnier.
Request from the European Parliament
The first investigations began in 2015 when the European Parliament asked the community anti-fraud body to analyze whether, as it suspected, the RN had committed irregularities with the salaries of its parliamentary assistants. Not only were European funds used to pay collaborators who actually worked for the party, but some accumulated contracts improperly, the investigators added in the 98-page report that they delivered to the investigating judge handling the case in Paris. , Claire Thépaut, on February 15. The authors of the document consider that there is enough evidence to prosecute 17 leaders, elected politicians and people close to the far-right party for “diversion of public funds” or for “concealment” of this crime.
Marine Le Pen has repeatedly denied her guilt in this matter and her party insisted that its leader “has not committed any infraction or irregularity”, and that the process will allow him to defend himself on the merits and “make use of his common sense arguments.” . However, many believe that the fear of being condemned pushed her to create a replacement like the young Jordan Bardella, currently president of the party and last candidate for the European elections.
Bardella was, for a few months in 2015, parliamentary assistant to Jean-François Jalkh. However, he is not among the 12 former parliamentary assistants tried in this case in French courts. Despite this, the book published this September The Gagner Machine. Révélations sur le RN en marche vers l’Elysée(The winning machine. Revelations about the RN’s march towards the Elysée), where Tristan Berteloot’s journalist investigates the dark side of the functioning and rise of the RN, Bardella’s name does appear in the organization chart of the National Front in February 2015.