French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen pleaded her innocence at the start of a £5.6million embezzlement trial today saying: ‘We have not violated any rules’.
The 56-year-old far-Right firebrand appeared confident and relaxed at the start of a process that could see her imprisoned for 10 years and banned from standing in elections.
She was on Monday in the dock at the Paris Correctional Court alongside 24 members and staff of her National Rally party in a case focusing on the EU.
All are accused of stealing a total of €6.8million (£5.6million) of European taxpayers’ money by setting up fake jobs in the European Parliament over a period of at least 10 years.
Wearing a light grey duster coat over a black jacket with white top, Ms Le Pen spoke to journalists as she went into the 11th chamber of the Paris Correctional Court, saying: ‘I have confidence in justice. I am here to present our arguments. I am very calm.’
Marie Le Pen pleaded her innocence at the start of a £5.6million embezzlement trial on Monday at the Paris Correctional Court
French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) Member of Parliament Marine Le Pen (C) arrives at a court house for a trial on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds, in Paris on September 30, 2024
The qualified barrister demanded an acquittal, saying: ‘Parliamentary freedom is at stake. We have not violated any rules.’
A prosecution document of at least 160 pages was meanwhile displayed in court – one that includes evidence compiled over the past nine years.
It alleges that a ‘sophisticated billing system’ was set up by Le Pen, an MEP in Brussels from 2004 until 2017, to divert cash into party funds back in Paris.
Those implicated – all of whom deny any wrongdoing – include other leading lights in the Rassemblement National (RN), which was called the Front National (FN) up until 2018.
Its founder is the convicted racist and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is also Marine Le Pen’s father.
He was due to appear as a defendant too, but medics said the 96-year-old could stay away because of his ‘deteriorating state of health’.
Embezzlement is a crime punishable in France by ‘up to 10 years in prison’, and penalties also available to judges include ‘one million euros in fines, or double the proceeds of the offence’, said a prosecuting source.
He added that they have also asked ‘for the additional penalty of deprivation of the right to be elected, for a maximum period of five years, or ten years for an elected person or member of the government.’
The trial of Marine Le Pen, 24 other people and the National Rally, suspected of having embezzled funds from the European Parliament to pay party employees, opens on September 30, before the Paris criminal court – a case with serious political stakes for the leader of the far right
Ms Le Pen is currently one of 126 RN MPs, so if she were to be convicted, she would be ruled out of the 2027 presidential election, despite currently being a favourite to win.
The investigation into RN fraud began in March 2015, when the European Parliament announced that it had referred possible irregularities to the EU anti-fraud office.
It mainly concerned salaries paid to parliamentary assistants, and even to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s bodyguard.
Ms Le Pen was in 2022 runner up to Emmanuel Macron in the race to become president of France, after a similar result in 2017.
Party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen in turn came second to Jacques Chirac in the presidential election of 2002.
Mr Le Pen has already been convicted in a criminal court, notably for spreading racial hatred, for Holocaust denial, and for other racist crimes.
Earlier this year, the RN did so well in European elections that President Macron called snap domestic parliamentary elections.
It led to the RN saying they were preparing for government, with party leader Jordan Bardella set to become prime minister.
Mr Bardella is a former EU parliamentary assistant for the RN, but is not implicated in the current trial.
In fact, the RN was beaten into third place in the election by the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF), and by Mr Macron’s Renaissance party.
Mr Macron then appointed former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as prime minister, and he does not have a single RN or NPF minister in his government.
The RN embezzlement trial is scheduled to run for three afternoons a week until November 27.
