French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on trial for alleged misuse of EU funds

The trial of French far-right politician Marine Le Pen, her father Jean-Marie, her party National Rally and more than twenty others, suspected of embezzling European funds, has started on Monday in Paris. It will last until 27 November.

Le Pen and her co-defendants are suspected of having used money destined for EU parliamentary assistants to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016. Marine Le Pen has always denied those allegations. “We did not break any rules,” Marine Le Pen told the press upon entering the courthouse in Paris.

The now 96-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the far-right party National Rally, will not be present at the trial as his health condition does not permit it. Former MEP Jean-François Jalkh was also absent. The other defendants did attend. Among them are the mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, and the former number two of the party, Bruno Gollnisch. A total of 11 former MEPs, 12 assistants and four party employees are involved.

The investigation into Le Pen and her staff began in March 2015, when the European Parliament announced that it had found possible irregularities by the party, called National Front at the time, related to salaries of parliamentary assistants. Le Pen was charged in June 2017 with “breach of trust” and “complicity”, charges that were later reclassified as “misappropriation of public funds”.

The public prosecutor's office suspects that the National Rally “jointly and deliberately set up a system of embezzlement” of the monthly sums of 21,000 euros allocated to each MEP by the European Union to pay parliamentary assistants. In reality, those assistants would have already worked wholly or partly for the party, allowing it to make significant salary savings.

The European Parliament has taken civil action against the party, estimating the losses incurred at 6.8 million euros for the years 2009 to 2017.

If convicted, those charged could face fines and prison terms of up to ten years. They could also be declared ineligible to run for office for up to five years, which could jeopardise Le Pen’s candidacy in France's next presidential election in 2027.

^{Marine Le Pen enters courthouse in Paris for trial over alleged misuse of EU funds © BELGA PHOTO PHOTOPQR/LE PARISIEN/Olivier Lejeune/MAXPPP}