In September 2024, Marine Le Pen will go on trial for embezzling European Union funds.
The leader of the far-right French party National Rally Marine Le Pen and 26 others will face trial for embezzlement of public funds. FranceInfo wrote this on December 8.
The case concerns the possible misuse of European Union funds to pay assistants to MEPs who actually worked for the National Rally party. The scheme was run between 2004 and 2016, when Le Pen was an MEP.
The trial will last from September 30 to November 27, 2024, and the defendants are Marine Le Pen, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen and the National Rally party as a legal entity.
The National Rally said “Marine Le Pen has not committed any offence.”
The case against Le Pen and her associates dates back to 2015, when she was a member of the European Parliament, and relates to suspicions of misusing EU funds to pay non-existent assistants.
Prosecutors say that since 2004, MEPs of the National Front (the former name of the party – ed.), especially Le Pen and her father, participated in a scheme to make up assistants.
The court could bar Le Pen from holding office for up to 10 years, jeopardizing her plans to run for the French presidency for a fourth term in 2027.
As is known, Le Pen is suspected of systematic abuse of EU funds. In the past, Marine Le Pen paid the European Parliament 300 thousand euros. The court ruled that the money must be returned because Le Pen could not prove that “her assistant performed actual work for her.”
Source: korrespondent
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