Party had no ‘system’ to misuse EU funds, Marine Le Pen tells appeal trial | Marine Le Pen
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen told a Paris appeals court that her party had no “system” in place to misuse European parliament funds and testified in a new embezzlement trial that will determine whether she can run in the 2027 presidential election.
“The word ‘system’ bothers me because [it gives] Le Pen denied on Tuesday that she had told members of the European parliament to hire assistants to work at the party headquarters in Paris, saying, “There is an impression of manipulation.”
“I have never asked a member in my life. [European] “Parliament will recruit assistants to work for the National Front,” Le Pen told the court.
Le Pen, 57, who leads the anti-immigration National Rally (RN), formerly Front National, was considered one of the top candidates in next year’s election until she was banned from running for public office last March after being found guilty of extensive and long-running fake jobs fraud in the European parliament.
The judges ruled that Le Pen was “at the heart” of a carefully orchestrated system of embezzlement of European Parliament funds from 2004 to 2016. The judges gave Le Pen a five-year ban from candidacy and a four-year prison sentence, effective immediately; Two of those years have been suspended and two will be served outside prison with an electronic bracelet. They ordered him to pay a fine of €100,000.
Le Pen, a lawyer by profession, is now seeking to overturn that decision and sentence, denying wrongdoing and insisting she wants to run for president again.
The decision of his appeal hearing and any sentence expected before the summer will determine his political future and whether he can make a fourth bid for the presidency next year. Otherwise, he would be replaced by his protégé and party chairman, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella.
The appeal court heard allegations that taxpayers’ money allocated to members of the European parliament for the salaries of their assistants in Strasbourg or Brussels was siphoned off by the party to pay the salaries of its own workers in France, in breach of parliamentary rules.
The staff in France had no connection with the work carried out in the European Parliament. The loss to European funds is estimated at €4.8 million (£4.2 million).
During Tuesday’s questioning, chief judge Michèle Agi read an email cited as evidence of a system of alleged fakes. A former member of the European Parliament, who was a lawyer, wrote in an email to the party treasurer: “What Marin wants is tantamount to us signing fictitious works…” He warned that this was likely to be noticed. The treasurer replied: “I think Marine knows all of this…”
Le Pen told the court that the email was not copied to her and that she was unaware of it. If he had received the email, he said, he would not have responded “randomly” like the treasurer did. He said he had never asked any member of the European parliament to hire an assistant to work for the party. He told members of parliament that he had never given “instructions regarding the recruitment of assistants”.
Le Pen was asked about statements given to investigators by two former party members who claimed that in 2014 he told 23 members of the European parliament that they could get one MP from two potential MPs and that the rest of the money would “benefit the party”. Le Pen: “This is wrong!” he said.
Le Pen said the accusations of some former party members should be rejected because they were “extremely hostile” towards her, “like in a divorce”.
Le Pen appealed last year’s decision, along with 10 of the 24 party members convicted. The appeal will continue until February 12.
The legal actions stem from a 2015 warning by then-European Parliament president Martin Schulz to French officials about possible fraud.
