Paris (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – France’s far-right confronts a major trial in Paris with members of the National Rally (RN) set with embezzling millions of euros of European funds to disburse people performing for the national political party.
Twenty-seven members and ex-members of the RN, previously called the National Front, are on trial, including ex-presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and her father and the party’s co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. Those charged risk a max of 10 years in prison and fines of up to €1 million, as well as having their civic rights terminated for five years -— a sentence that would make them ineligible to run for elected office.
What penalties are the accused National Rally members facing?
The charges vary from embezzling public funds, complicity in doing so, or hiding. Those on trial include MEPs such as Nicolas Bay, long-time politicians such as Perpignan mayor Louis Aliot, and many others who performed for the party. The party has rejected the allegations, which span the years 2004 to 2016, to multiple French media, stating they would present their arguments in court.
The probe dates back to 2015, when the then-president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz cautioned French authorities of the possible fraudulent usage of funds meant to pay the party’s parliamentary assistants. He also reached the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which was already examining the work of Marine Le Pen’s parliamentary assistants. Corruption investigators in France started looking into the suspicions in 2015 and discovered inconsistencies in contractual documents.
What evidence did investigators find in the corruption probe?
The Paris prosecutor’s office extended a judicial investigation in 2016 for breach of trust and suspicion of methodical fraud. Le Pen was summoned in 2018 to pay the European Parliament some €300,000 over the misuse of funds. The French trial and charge against the 27 former and current party members was reported last year.
The European Parliament is a civil force in the case to “obtain compensation for financial and reputational damage,” a parliament spokesperson said, adding that both EU citizens and French taxpayers were targets in the case. A previous estimate of the cracks, reported in 2018, was that it was almost €7 million but this estimate has since been revised, according to a spokesperson.
