Patriot forces seem to be in the crosshairs across Europe.
Recently, more and more right-wing politicians have been tried to be stopped not at the ballot box, but in court. This is what is happening with Matteo Salvini in Italy, Donald Trump in the United States and now Marine Le Pen could be the next target.
All surveys show that the leader of the National Consolidation has never been so close to winning the French presidential election. Now, however, a court case could even put Le Pen's political career on hold.
A large-scale trial begins on Monday, in which
prosecutors accuse Le Pen, the National Compact and 26 other people (including current and former legislators and MEPs) of embezzling European Parliament funds and awarding EU parliamentary assistant contracts to people who are mostly members of the party operation, rather than dealing with European Union affairs.
Le Pen has repeatedly denied that she did anything wrong, writes Politico.
If he is found guilty after the two-month trial, he can be sentenced to ten years in prison and a fine of up to one million euros. Although such a long prison sentence is unlikely,
he is also threatened with a possible five-year ban from holding public office, which would prevent him from running in the 2027 presidential election.
The prosecutors announced in a statement that they were informed by the European Parliament that the National Compact spent several million euros annually on parliamentary assistants, most of whom held key positions in the party.
"The lawyers of the European Parliament believe that in this case the Parliament suffered both financial and reputational damage," the press service of the Parliament said in a statement sent to Politico.
Other well-known figures of the French radical right are also involved, including Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party's founder and father of Marine Le Pen, and Louis Aliot, the mayor of the city of Perpignan in southern France, who used to be Le Pen's partner. Jordan Bardella is not among the politicians involved.
National Compaction argues that these cases stem from cultural differences between Paris and Brussels.
"In French political parties, paid employees are the exception and volunteering is the norm, but this is not the case in other European political cultures," a senior National Compact official told Poltico. The National Compact is not the first French party to be involved in such a case: earlier this year, the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem), a member of the coalition supporting French President Emmanuel Macron, was fined 300,000 euros for similar accusations.
Learning from the example of Donald Trump, National Collapse wants to turn the lawsuit to the party's advantage.
“Marine will be very present, very involved in his trial and has planned his agenda accordingly. He wants to be in court as many days as possible," a senior lawmaker from the National Coalition told the Brussels newspaper.
The MP added that Le Pen believes her presence could influence the outcome, especially since she used to work as a lawyer.
Cover image credit: X/Marine Le Pen
