This is a decisive trial in more ways than one that opens on Monday, September 30, before the Paris judicial court: for seven weeks, justice has been investigating the case of the parliamentary assistants of the MEPs of the National Front (FN, now since 2018 National Rally, RN), a file of fictitious jobs and covert financing of the party, through a mechanism through which the RN is suspected of having hired permanent members of its formation with credits assigned by the European Parliament for the employment of assistants of the MEPs.
A good number of senior officials from Marine Le Pen’s party will appear in the dock, starting with the latter. But not only that: if we take note of two notable absences, Jean-Marie Le Pen and the former vice president of the party Jean-François Jalkh – whose file has been dismantled – the list of accused runs through the history of the FN, with its faithful historical ones, such as the mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, the former MEP Fernand Le Rachinel or the lawyer Wallerand de Saint-Just; its young hopes, like the deputy Julien Odoul; and even his “traitors”, who abandoned him after disagreements, such as Marion Maréchal, MEP Nicolas Bay or Bruno Gollnisch. All of them are being prosecuted for “embezzlement of public funds”, “cover-up” of this crime or even “complicity”, all charges that can carry penalties of disqualification, a great danger for a party that is presented at the gates of the force.
The matter erupted in 2014, when the European Anti-Fraud Office, the European Parliament’s supervisory body, received information about possible irregularities in the contracts of the FN’s parliamentary assistants. In February 2015, these suspicions were reinforced with the publication of an official organizational chart of the Frontista party, which included sixteen European deputies and twenty parliamentary assistants with party responsibilities. However, the European Parliament’s statutes explicitly prohibit funds paid to MEPs to hire assistants from being used to finance national political activities. On March 9, Martin Schulz, then president of Parliament, wrote to the French Ministry of Justice, which in turn referred the matter to the Paris prosecutor.
The accusations follow one another
In February 2016, searches were carried out at the party headquarters, at the homes of several attendees, but also at the Amboise auditing company, directed by Nicolas Crochet, the FN’s historical accountant, already implicated in another illegal financing file. that affects the frontist party. , the “Jeanne-Riwal” affair. This company plays the role of “third party payer” for FN MEPs: it is responsible for monitoring the assistants’ contracts and paying their social security contributions.
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