France’s Le Pen and far-right party on trial for alleged EU funds misuse

The long-running case threatens to ruin any bid by Le Pen for the presidency in 2027.

Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen has denied violating any rules [Benoit Tessier/Reuters]

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally (RN) party and two dozen others went on trial, accused of misusing European Union funds.

Arriving at the court in Paris on Monday, Le Pen said she remained confident as “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and pledged to present the judges with “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments″.

Le Pen and other National Rally members casually greeted each other before sitting down in the first three rows of the packed courtroom.

The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is seen as a strong contender in the race for the presidency in 2027.

The allegations are directed against 26 defendants from RN, including the leader’s father and party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Party officials and employees, former legislators and parliamentary assistants are accused of using money allocated to cover the costs of European Parliament roles to pay staff who were working for RN.

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Prosecutors claim that RN said the funds were used to pay “parliamentary assistants” of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) between 2004 and 2016, but that, in reality, the employees were working exclusively in other roles for the party.

Many assistants were unable to describe their day-to-day work and some never met their supposed MEP boss or set foot in the parliament building, the prosecution said.

A bodyguard, secretary, Le Pen’s chief of staff and a graphic designer were all allegedly hired under false pretences.

Le Pen has always denied the allegations, first flagged in 2015, and claims the case is politically driven.

The case reportedly involves a sum of close to $7.8m. Le Pen paid back 330,000 euros ($368,400) to the European Parliament last year, but her party stressed that this was not an admission of misconduct.

If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1m) each.

Other penalties, including the loss of civil rights or ineligibility to run for office, could also be imposed, a scenario that could block Le Pen from a fourth run for the French presidency in 2027.

Source: News Agencies

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