Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) and candidate in the 2027 French presidential elections, admitted on Monday to having “missed” the contractual change of her assistant in the European Parliament (EP) when she announced that she I wanted to physically stop working for this institution.
“Catherine Griset told me in 2015 that she no longer wanted to appear as permanently accredited (Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg) because she had a romantic relationship that was evolving. I told her yes, but, for one reason or another other and due to the lack of budget, I let his transfer as local assistant go through”, admitted Le Pen from the dock.
The leader of the RN and 26 other members of this party are currently facing a trial at the Paris Criminal Court accused of having improperly used parliamentary assistants hired by deputies, paid for with money from the European Parliament.
Concretely, they are accused of having used these employees to carry out work within the party and not to support the activity of MEPs, which expressly contravenes the rules of the Chamber.
“I have the feeling that I have not committed the slightest irregularity,” Le Pen said, before insisting that “everything we have done, We had the right to do it. »
The leader of the French far right tried to overturn the prosecutor’s arguments by pointing out that the amounts of funds intended to pay Parliament assistants “they belong to the voters”to which the judge replied: “they belong to the European Parliament”.
She also assured that she saw “no difference between the mandate of an assistant (at) national or European level, except in the difference of scale”, in the sense that, according to her, it is the same political work that is done.
He offense of embezzlement of which Le Pen is accused is liable to up to ten years in prisona million euro fine and ten years’ ban.
During this Monday’s hearing, the leader of the ultra party had to answer the judge’s questions about her working relations with Catherine Grisetwho was his parliamentary assistant in the EP between 2010 and 2016.
The European body’s internal investigation mainly pointed the finger at the period between October 2014 and August 2015, where Griset, Le Pen’s former sister-in-law with whom she worked for decades, would have spent only 740 minutes at PE. , equivalent to 12 hours of work.
The leader defended that Griset – now an RN MEP – actually worked for her and mentioned that she retrieved her correspondence, checked her emails and organized her travels. “I can’t put my finger on my Parliament email (European). Not in my professional email either. The only email I see is the personal mail,” said Le Pen, who began her defense statement in a calm tone.
However, to justify Griset’s lack of physical work in the EP – which she had contractually committed to – Le Pen had to admit that she had “missed” the change in status from European to local collaborator.
“She asked me several times, but I stopped,” he insisted. Griset earned, monthly, 2,654 euros between 2010 and 2014 and 3,206 euros between 2014 and 2016.
