Le Pen’s political future at stake during embezzlement trial

While the National Rally (RN) has never been particularly influential in France and Brussels, Marine Le Pen and 26 other individuals must answer for "embezzlement of European funds" in a trial that could determine the presidential ambitions of the far-right party leader.

After ten years of investigations, the RN leader will stand trial starting Monday (September 30) for "embezzlement of European funds," a charge that carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, a €1 million fine, and a ban from holding public office for up to five years. 

This could significantly dent her intention to run for the French presidency in 2027.

"Marine [Le Pen] is combative; she will be very present at the trial and wants to set the record straight," said lawyer Alexandre Varaut, who was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024 and handled RN's communication on this sensitive matter, in an interview with Mediapart.

The far-right party is accused of having "deliberately and systematically" set up a scheme between 2004 and 2016 to divert funds allocated by the European Union (EU)to pay parliamentary assistants to MEPs.

These assistants allegedly worked partially or entirely for the RN, allowing the party to make substantial savings on salaries when it severely lacked funds. The European Parliament, a civil party in the case, has estimated its financial loss at €6.8 million.

In total, 11 former MEPs elected on the party's lists, 12 of their parliamentary assistants, and four other collaborators will face trial.

Among the defendants are the Mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, former party number two Bruno Gollnisch, MP Julien Odoul, and MEP Nicolas Bay, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, who was elected last June on the rival Reconquest list after leaving RN.

A decade of investigations

The case erupted in March 2015 when then-president of the European Parliament, German social democrat Martin Schulz, reported a possible embezzlement of funds to French authorities. Just days earlier, the far-right party had published an organisational chart listing several assistants supposedly working in Strasbourg.

Since then, Le Pen has claimed the allegations are a conspiracy. "We are completely innocent [...] This case was initiated for political reasons by [Martin] Schulz," she said on France Inter in 2018.

"Marine Le Pen is guilty of nothing; this is, once again, a diversionary tactic to tarnish the National Rally, as our voters well understand," said MEP Julien Sanchez on France Info on September 26.

However, documents and testimonies have steadily accumulated over the years.

"For your information, you will have the choice of hiring an assistant yourself, and the rest of your allocation will be made available to the movement," Le Pen allegedly told new MEPs from her party during a meeting on June 4, 2014, according to Libération, which notes that more than 2,500 pieces of evidence have been added to the case file.

Two instances where false evidence of work for parliamentary assistants was allegedly produced have been revealed by French media in recent weeks, including Jordan Bardella, the current president of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, who worked as an assistant in 2015 for RN MEP Jean-François Jalkh.

According to Libération, false agendas and hand-annotated press reviews were allegedly fabricated retroactively to prove Bardella's activity, though he has never been questioned in connection with the RN assistants case. Bardella has quickly denounced these accusations as "false".

The long weeks of hearings ahead will likely be gruelling for the far-right party, even as its 143 MPs and their allies hold the fate of Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government in their hands, with the power to bring it down at any moment.

However, the trial may once again allow the movement to position itself as "anti-system."

[Edited by Owen Morgan/AliceTaylor-Braçe]