Mᵉ François Wagner made an effort to remain technically sober, and still lasted an hour and a half on Monday, November 18, before saying what was on his mind. The historic lawyer of the National Front (FN, now National Group, RN) initially considered it expedient to allege “a file of great legal complexity”that of party assistants in the European Parliament, using unprecedented means “frequently asked questions” – he found thirty – peeled one by one, before getting to the point: the party is being impeached.
“This issue has been political from the beginning”the lawyer assured, with the 2015 report of Martin Schulz, then Social Democratic president of the European Parliament. Furthermore, Brussels investigators did not consider it necessary to persecute the Spanish socialists of Podemos, and Martin Schulz himself never got into trouble, although “His assistants complained about having to iron his pants.” according to the lawyer, and that one of them would have been at the same time “travel agency manager” – in fact, OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office, after an investigation, considered that it could only benefit from a dismissal of the case.
But Mᵉ Wagner notes that in 2014, François Hollande was in the pre-campaign and had already planned to embarrass his “potential adversary” : Martin Schulz also met with the then French minister, Christiane Taubira, “there are photos, it’s in the file”AND “among socialist comrades we cannot deny each other anything”. Confirmation “The political nature of the case came with the requests for provisional execution. When politics enters the courts, justice leaves, —the lawyer proclaimed theatrically. Drive away this bad wind that the Prosecutor’s Office has blown over this hearing. »
Mᵉ Wagner defends Micheline Bruna, the faithful secretary, promoted to parliamentary assistant of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is charged with eighteen months of suspended prison, a fine of 20,000 euros and two years of disqualification, and three former MEPs, Dominique Bilde and Mylène Troszczynski. and Marie-Christine Arnautu, against whom the prosecutor requests sentences of eighteen months, including one year suspended, and fines of 30,000 to 50,000 euros accompanied by disqualification for three years.
“Unclear” regulations
On the merits, the lawyer assured that the successive regulations of Parliament had evolved considerably, and “they were not very clear”, in the words of the Director General of OLAF; that it was possible to share, among deputies, the same assistant on condition of declaring it. “The written statement is certainly missing, I admit that.”Mᵉ Wagner agreed, and finally, if a collaborator is prohibited from working for a European party, “An attendee is not prohibited from having ties to or being an employee of a national political party” before 2015, before it was properly included in the texts. Consequently, he requests the release of his four clients. The other lawyers too.
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