On Wednesday evening, the French prosecutor's office requested that the French opposition politician be sentenced to five years in prison and also be banned from running in political elections for five years, for the National Consolidation (RN), which he characterized, according to the indictment, between 2004 and 2016, 6.8 million used euro European Parliament allowance illegally for national party purposes.
The court will deliver its verdict in early 2025, and if it follows the prosecution's proposal, it may even prevent Marine Le Pen's presidential ambitions in 2027.
"We are in a court here and the law applies to everyone," emphasized prosecutor Nicolas Barret, who also suggested that the punishment be applied when the sentence is announced, even if the three-time presidential candidate appeals, citing that he cannot be removed due to his political ambitions responsibility.
Such a verdict would "prohibit the defendants from running in local or national elections in the future," the prosecutor reminded Marine Le Pen, who sat in the front row with the 24 other defendants, RN leaders, former members of parliament and parliamentary assistants.
The case, involving France's largest opposition party, began in 2015 with a report from the presidency of the European Parliament and related to a contract with the French party's parliamentary assistants.
According to the Paris prosecutor's office, several of the EP assistants employed by the National Compact have never been to the European Parliament, and according to the indictment, they worked directly for the party in France, which is prohibited by European regulations.
"I think the intention of the prosecution is to deprive the French people of voting for who they want" and to "destroy the party," Le Pen told French reporters as she left the courtroom. The prosecution also requested a fine of 300,000 euros.
In their indictment on Wednesday, the prosecutors believed that the RN had developed an "organized system" for the dishonest handling of public funds borrowed from the European Parliament with the "fake contracts" of parliamentary assistants in order to channel the funds to the party.
The two prosecutors presented in detail the structure of the "system" which, according to them, was introduced between 2004 and 2016 at the RN's predecessor party, the National Front, the essence of which was that they employed European Parliament assistants in a "fictitious" way, i.e. on paper, who were actually the they worked for the party.
At the time, “the party was in a very difficult financial situation. Everything that could contribute to lightening the burden was used systematically, whether it was legal or not,” said prosecutor Louise Neyton, as Marine Le Pen protested loudly.
The European Parliament only carries out "accounting audits", otherwise it trusts the MEPs regarding the use of their 21,000-euro monthly allowance.
"That is, the temptation is great, and these sums seemed like an opportunity, and they were used that way," emphasized the prosecutor.
According to the Paris prosecutor's office, in the case of the National Collapse, a system was introduced through which part of the party's operating costs were paid with the European Parliament, in such a way that the EU body covered the wages of more and more of the party's employees. According to the prosecutor's office, this "system" - which was approved by FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and then by his daughter Marine Le Pen after inheriting the party leadership in 2011 - accelerated when 23 FN MPs were impeached in 2014 to the European Parliament, compared to the previous three. From then on, the party also hired an employee who dealt with the management of European contracts and who reported exclusively to the president, the "principal".
The prosecutors - "against the alternative fiction presented by the defense" - analyzed the "nature" of the work done by the 12 parliamentary assistants and their relationship with their MEPs, nine of whom are accused of embezzlement of public funds, accused by accused and contract by contract. According to the prosecutor's office, there is no evidence to prove the work done, except for a few newspaper reviews.
In the trial, which began on September 30, nine former MEPs of the former National Front must answer, including former party president Marine Le Pen, current leader of the faction in the National Assembly, and her ex-partner, Louis Aliot, the vice-president of the party. In addition, 12 former parliamentary assistants and four former party employees were also suspected in the trial. 96-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen did not have to appear in court for health reasons.
In February, the Paris criminal court acquitted Francois Bayrou, leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (Modem), one of the main allies of French President Emmanuel Macron, who had to answer with ten of his party colleagues in the case of their party's fictitious assistant positions in the European Parliament. However, eight of the defendants were sentenced to a suspended prison sentence. In France, a similar procedure is underway against a third parliamentary party, the radical left-wing Disobedient France.
MTI
Cover image credit: X/Marine Le Pen
