France: trial required for Marine Le Pen, head of the RN, her father and 26 others in the case of parliamentary assistants

There should be a trial for Marine Le Pen and 26 others in the case of the assistants of MEPs of the National Front, which has since become the National Rally (RN). The French justice suspects several elected frontists of the time to have employed, from 2004 to 2016, party staff – bodyguards, assistants ... – with money from the European Union. The Paris prosecutor's office requested a trial on Friday, September 22.

Marine Le Pen during a vote for the presidency of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, January 17, 2017. AP - Jean-Francois Badias

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They are 27, including Marine Le Pen, triple candidate in the presidential election, her father Jean-Marie, founder of the party, Louis Aliot, the mayor of Perpignan, or the former number 2 of the party, Bruno Gollnisch. And they are suspected of having participated in a system of embezzlement of public funds when they were MEPs, explains Pierrick Bonno of RFI's political service.

Did they really use part of their parliamentary envelope to pay staff who actually worked for the party in Paris? In any case, the prosecutor's office considers that there is sufficient evidence to refer them to the criminal court. A decision that comes just days after the launch of the RN's campaign for the European elections, scheduled for June 9, 2024.

And this is not a coincidence, says Laurent Jacobelli, spokesman for the party, joined by Pierrick Bonno. "We are now used to seeing the case of European collaborators resurface six or nine months before an important election. Each time, of course, our MPs prove their good faith. But that does not prevent this judicial soap-opera from releasing a new episode at the beginning of each campaign. What we want is for the substantive debate not to be overshadowed by what could perhaps be manoeuvres.

In this case, we learned Thursday that Marine Le Pen had reimbursed this summer nearly 330,000 euros to the European Parliament. But the story will not end there. The National Rally is not the only party troubled by the courts. The Modem is also in the sights of the judges: eleven people, including François Bayrou, will be in the dock next month in a similar case.

" READ ALSO The former French minister François Bayrou indicted in the investigation on the MoDem

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• France
• French politics
• Marine Le Pen
• European Union
• Justice