a battle of numbers which could have serious financial consequences for the party

Wednesday’s debates focused in particular on the amount of damage alleged against the far-right party. With the key, the amount of fines incurred.

On the third day of the trial in the RN parliamentary assistants case, Wednesday October 2, an Excel table appears on the court screen. In colored boxes appear the names of former National Front MEPs, their parliamentary assistants, the dates of the contracts and the amounts in euros. After reading the long summary of the facts alleged against the far-right party, now the National Rally, and the 25 defendants, the president of the 11th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court lists the sums of the alleged damages. Marine Le Pen, “474,000 euros” for four parliamentary assistants; Jean-Marie Le Pen (ultimately not judged due to his state of health), “513,000 euros” for five assistants; Bruno Gollnisch, “1.41 million euros”…

The subject is essential. For the court, this involves informing the parties of the amount of the offense that it has assessed at this stage and which will be the subject of fierce debate during the two-month hearing. However, these amounts do not correspond to those claimed by the European Parliament at the start of the case, nor to those retained by the judges during the investigation. The European institution had initially estimated its damage at nearly 7 million euros, taking into account all the parliamentary assistant contracts of FN MEPs between 2004 and 2016. The investigating judges, for their part, had not retained only about half – 3.2 million euros – based on contracts deemed fraudulent and therefore prosecuted.

For its part, the court took into account not only these contracts, for which deputies and assistants were indicted, but also contracts for which the defendants were heard without giving rise to prosecution and which are listed in a table annexed to the referral order issued by the investigating judges. Which represents a total of 4.5 million euros. It is this amount which could therefore be withheld against the RN, judged as a legal entity for complicity and concealment of embezzlement of public funds, but also against the five individuals judged for complicity, Marine Le Pen and four ex-treasurers and accountants.

The defense lawyers pounce: “Are you telling us that you are going to make the legal entity bear contracts which were not the responsibility of the MP and which are going out the window?”takes offense at Me Rodolphe Bosselut, announcing that he will submit conclusions on this subject. “We feel like we’re trapped”says one of his colleagues. “There is no trapannoys the president, Bénédicte de Perthuis. We are seized of all the contracts which appear in the table” of the referral order and which, according to the magistrate, fall within the “system” diversion set up by the party with its parliamentary assistants. “Aaaah…the system!”seethes Marine Le Pen, furious, from her bench. Heard Wednesday at the start of the evening at the bar, she promises that her “lawyers will do their job” so that the matter does not end there.

If this amount is hotly debated and will continue to be, it is because it will determine the amount of damages claimed by the civil party, the European Parliament, but also the fine imposed on the National Rally and the defendants prosecuted for complicity if found guilty. Since the Cahuzac affair and the 2013 law against tax fraud and serious economic and financial crime, the sanctions imposed by the courts can in fact be proportional to the amount of the damage. For individuals, if this exceeds 1 million euros, the fine can be increased to double the proceeds of the offense. Or 9 million euros if the court’s figures do not change between now and the deliberations.

For the RN, a legal entity, the fixed fine incurred for complicity in embezzlement is five times higher than that of natural persons, which corresponds to 5 million euros. It is therefore unlikely that the court will go further.

The RN is playing big because such fines would threaten the timetable of its debt reduction plan. A liability of around 20 million euros must be cleared by 2027, the year of the presidential election. In the mirror case of the MoDem European parliamentary assistants, the damage, estimated at 1 million euros by the European Parliament, was reduced to 293,000 euros during the trial. And the centrist party was fined 300,000 euros. But the file was not of the same magnitude. The court concluded that “the absence of characterization of a system, given the moderate number of misused contracts”.

The lawyers for the RN and the defendants, who tried in vain to have the trial postponed, will undoubtedly fight for the weeks to come to reduce the amount of the damage.