understand everything at stake in the trial that threatens the political future of Marine Le Pen

In the European Parliament, Marine Le Pen was in the ” center “ of a “organized system” of misappropriation of public funds, the Prosecutor’s Office estimated, on Wednesday, November 13, in a very severe accusation, almost a month and a half after the opening of the process against the parliamentary assistants of the MEPs of the National Front (FN).

Twenty-five people, including the head of the deputies of the National Rally (RN, heir to the FN), have been on trial since September 30 before the Paris criminal court. It is suspected that they have created, between 2004 and 2016, a “diversion system” money paid by the European Union (EU) for the hiring of parliamentary collaborators, in order to finance the political activities of the far-right party. Damage estimated at almost 7 million euros by the European Parliament.

In their indictment, prosecutors demanded five years in prison against Marine Le Pen, two of them adjustable, five years of disqualification and a fine of 300,000 euros. The prosecution requested that the ruling of ineligibility be accompanied by a provisional execution, meaning that it would be applied immediately after the conviction, even after appeal.

The trial is scheduled to continue until November 27, with defense arguments on Monday, November 18, and a decision expected in early 2025.

How did the matter start in the European Parliament?

On 20 January 2014, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) received an anonymous complaint about a “possible fraud”. This letter warns about cases of“alleged fictitious jobs”of the FN and its then president, Marine Le Pen, who was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017.

The European anti-fraud body opens an administrative investigation and examines the activities of two people close to Marine Le Pen: Catherine Griset, her chief of staff, and Thierry Légier, her bodyguard, both also presented as her parliamentary assistants. The investigation reveals that Catherine Griset, now an MEP, “It would have only taken 740 minutes, or about twelve hours” at the European Parliament, when he was supposed to be an assistant there, between October 2014 and August 2015. The report also describes “fictional” the employment of Thierry Légier.

In March 2015, the matter took on greater proportions. The President of Parliament, Martin Schulz, reports to OLAF possible irregularities relating to salaries paid to other employees. He reported these events to the French Ministry of Justice, after verifying that the FN’s organizational chart also included twenty parliamentary assistants; some even hold key positions with Marine Le Pen and the party’s former honorary president, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Between 2004 and 2016, the European Parliament assessed the damage of this ” system “ at 6.8 million euros. In 2017, he demanded that Marine Le Pen reimburse almost 340,000 euros, a sum corresponding to the salaries of Catherine Griset and Thierry Légier. Faced with the leader’s refusal to pay it, Parliament’s financial services took several tens of thousands of euros from her chosen compensation before she left Brussels in 2017. Threatened with an enforceable recovery decision, Marine Le Pen eventually returned 330,000 euros in July 2023. His lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, specifies that this “in no case does it constitute an explicit or implicit recognition of the claims of the European Parliament”.

What did the French investigation reveal?

Following Martin Schulz’s report, the French justice system opened a preliminary investigation in March 2015 for breach of trust, considering that these events could resemble illegal party financing. The investigations, entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Fiscal Violations, gave rise to a series of searches, in particular at the headquarters of the FN. Investigators are collecting overwhelming testimonies and documents. Like the letter sent by the party’s former treasurer, Wallerand de Saint-Just, to Marine Le Pen, in June 2014, in which he wrote: “We will only get out of this situation if we achieve significant savings thanks to the European Parliament. »

In December 2016, a judicial investigation was opened for acts of “abuse of trust”, “concealment of breach of trust”, “fraud by organized gangs”, “forgery and use of forgery” and “hidden work”. According to a summary report, “the study of the discovered documents (…) revealed the creation of a fraudulent system in which several FN executives were involved.

More than twenty indictments have been issued, including against Marine Le Pen in 2017 for “breach of trust” and “complicity in breach of trust.” This accusation was aggravated a year later in “embezzlement of public funds.”

In December 2023, at the end of a nine-year investigation, the investigating judges requested the referral to justice of the FN and twenty-seven leaders or employees. parliamentary assistants “They are not simple officials of the European Parliament, but have a technical and political role”defended the RN after this decision. and to add that they have “Perfectly the right, in addition, to participate in militant activities”.

What risk does Marine Le Pen run?

The head of RN deputies is prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds and complicity, acts punishable by up to ten years in prison, a fine of 1 million euros and five years of disqualification. In their indictment on November 13, prosecutors requested five years in prison, including two adjustable prison sentences, a fine of 300,000 euros, as well as a five-year disqualification sentence accompanied by provisional execution, which would constitute a major obstacle to the 2027 presidential election.

The prosecution considered that Marine Le Pen played a role “central role” in this matter by hiring four fictitious assistants herself and being “accomplice by instigation” as president during the FN era. This “organized system” intended for “save money” money to the far-right party using MEPs’ monthly envelopes, defying democratic norms, the prosecutor said.

“I believe that the desire of the prosecution is to deprive the French of the possibility of voting for whoever they want” and of “ruin the party”, declared Marine Le Pen at the end of the requisitions. And to guarantee: “Their only objective is to prevent me from being the presidential candidate of my side. You have to be deaf and blind not to see it. »

Marine Le Pen’s entourage, however, wants to be confident and cites in particular a “Bayrou Jurisprudence” in reference to the February 2024 acquittal of the MoDem head in a similar case. François Bayrou was suspected of being the “primary decision maker” of a “fraudulent system” of embezzlement of European funds, between 2005 and 2017, by using Parliament’s remuneration for assistants who actually worked for MoDem. was released “for the benefit of the doubt” by the Paris criminal court. The prosecution appealed this decision. However, eight people, including five former MEPs, as well as the MoDem, were sentenced to suspended prison terms and ineligibility.

What do the other defendants risk?

In addition to Marine Le Pen and the RN, prosecuted as a legal entity, the defendants include several members or former members of the RN:

• Eleven MEPs elected under the FN banner, including the mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, the former interim president of the RN Jean-François Jalkh, the MEP Nicolas Bay and the party’s former number two, Bruno Gollnisch. Also implicated in this matter, former MEP and FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96, and former border MEP Jean-François Jalkh, 67, did not appear due to their health.
• Twelve people presented themselves as parliamentary assistants, including Thierry Légier, Catherine Griset, as well as current RN deputies Timothée Houssin and Julien Odoul, and Yann Le Pen, sister of Marine Le Pen.
• Four party collaborators, including Wallerand de Saint-Just.

The prosecutor requested the conviction of all defendants. In particular, he requested eighteen months of imprisonment, including six months, with three years of disqualification, against Louis Aliot and Nicolas Bay; ten months of suspended sentence and one year of disqualification against Julien Odoul and Timothée Houssin; Eighteen months of suspended sentence and two years of disqualification against Catherine Griset and Yann Le Pen. Against RN, prosecutors requested 4.3 million euros, of which 2.3 million were suspended, or 2 million to be paid immediately.

It should be noted that the current president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, was never heard within the framework of the investigation, although he enjoyed a four-month assistant contract with Jean-François Jalkh during the period examined during the judicial procedure. the newspaper Release revealed in September that the party, helped by the leader of the RN, had subsequently falsified documents to serve as proof of the work carried out by Jordan Bardella in Parliament. An accusation contested by the latter.