- Marine Le Pen defends herself against party finance allegations in Paris court
- Le Pen and other RN leaders accused of misusing EU funds for party staff salaries
- A guilty verdict could impact Le Pen’s 2027 presidential bid but might also boost her anti-establishment appeal
Marine Le Pen, a French politician, has responded to allegations of illicit party finance by European Parliament MPs from her far-right National Rally (RN) party.
Le Pen and more than 20 other senior party leaders are accused of recruiting assistants who worked for party purposes rather than the European Parliament, which paid them.
She told a Paris court on Monday that Brussels assembly-paid legislative assistants were inherently active in politics because that is what brought them to the job in the first place.
So, she maintained, it was a false distinction to say they should work for parliament.
“Assistants work for their deputies, enlarging their ideas,” Le Pen claimed.
“Look at how many deputies started as legislative assistants. It is because they are interested in politics.
“I have absolutely no feeling that I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest offence.”
Le Pen, along with 24 other listed people and the party as a legal organization, is accused of diverting EU legislative funding to pay party workers’ salaries.
According to the prosecution, she oversaw a system for several years in which RN employees from Paris were “taken on” as EU parliamentary aides in Brussels.
It is being contended in court that these RN officials, which included Le Pen’s bodyguard and a graphic designer in the PR department, rarely visited the EU parliament and played no role there.
On Monday, the court heard the case of Catherine Griset, Le Pen’s long-time personal assistant.
She was accredited as a parliamentary staffer in Brussels but only spent 12 hours at the assembly building between August 2014 and October 2015.
For the first time since the trial began two weeks ago, Le Pen responded to questions that it was unrealistic to believe that parliamentary assistants did not participate in political activities on a daily basis.
And she claimed that the European Parliament’s unwillingness to recognize this demonstrated its disconnect from political realities.
“The European Parliament is a bit like The Blob,” she observed, alluding to the 1958 film about a considerable amoeba threatening to devour the earth. “It sucks up the deputies.
“In Parliament, you can sleep, eat, and do your hair. Everything is designed to keep you in the box. Sometimes you have to say, “Cuckoo!” “We are supposed to be doing politics here!”
Le Pen, a lawyer by profession, said she would attend as much of the trial as possible, which will last until late November, despite France’s volatile political climate.
Her party has a unique opportunity to influence events because it now offers a permanent danger to Michel Barnier’s new government.
With the prime minister’s support of just more than a third of National Assembly deputies, Le Pen can bring him down at any time by supporting a censure motion proposed by the left.
“We understand we can press the button. You already know it. They are fully aware of this. “Everybody knows it,” she stated in an interview with Le Point magazine. “The government’s sell-by date is written on the box.”
Unlock your financial potential with free Webull shares in the UK
However, the outcome of the party funding trial might gravely undermine Le Pen’s political ambitions.
If she is found guilty, she may face prison time a substantial fine, and a five-year ban from running for public office.
This would theoretically rule out a bid for president in 2027, her fourth and most promising try.
Appeals against such a punishment might most likely delay the process until after 2027. If she won the presidency, she would be free from legal prosecution until she left office.
Some observers argue that a guilty verdict would have little impact on her chances since it would allow her to continue to portray herself as a victim of the establishment.
Others argue that campaigning under the shadow of a conviction will alienate many centrist voters who would otherwise support her for the first time.
Pelosi claims she hasn’t spoken to Biden since pressing him to drop out
