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“Making savings thanks to the European Parliament”: has the FN put Europe’s money to the party’s benefit?
“Making savings thanks to the European Parliament”: has the FN put Europe’s money to the party’s benefit?
(FURTHER INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
“Making significant savings thanks to the European Parliament”… The courts suspect the National Front of having used the parliamentary envelopes of FN MEPs to pay party employees. “Complément d’enquête” was able to question a key witness in the case of the RN parliamentary assistants.
In May 2014, the leadership of the National Front was delighted: 24 Front National MEPs entering the European Parliament meant a lot of money. Each MEP was entitled to an envelope of 21,000 euros per month to pay parliamentary assistants or collaborators, which made 24 x 21,000 euros x 12, or around 6 million per year: a colossal windfall. However, at the time, the party’s financial situation was catastrophic. Its treasurer sounded the alarm in a letter to Marine Le Pen, discovered by investigators during a search of the FN headquarters, and revealed by Mediapart: “We will only get out of this if we make significant savings thanks to the European Parliament,” he concluded in this writing.
Making “savings thanks to the European Parliament”? According to a key witness interviewed by “Complément d’enquête” whose hearing was crucial in the progress of the judicial inquiry, it was a “system” set up by the FN.
Nicolas Franchinard, then a parliamentary assistant to an FN MEP, was in the front row when the alleged embezzlement system was set up. On 4 June 2014, as he told investigators, he attended a meeting organised by Marine Le Pen in Brussels, in the presence of the new FN MEPs. He left the room with the other parliamentary collaborators when the FN boss wanted to continue the meeting behind closed doors. His MP then allegedly reported to him “that he is asked to have only one parliamentary collaborator, and that the others would be managed directly by the National Front.”
A former FN MP, Sophie Montel, recounts this same meeting of June 4, 2014 in a book. According to her, Marine Le Pen began with good news: “European deputies, unlike regional FN representatives, do not pay part of their allowance to the FN. Your allowance will not be deducted, rest assured.” After taking care to get some of her collaborators out, she allegedly demanded something in return. “Each of you has a budget envelope to hire your assistants. I therefore inform you that you will have the choice of recruiting an assistant yourself, and that the rest of your parliamentary assistance envelope will be made available to the movement.” These comments by Marine Le Pen were confirmed to “Complément d’enquête” by several MEPs present that day.
According to Nicolas Franchinard, this money represented “additional means to develop at the national level” a party much less popular than the RN is today. What did he think of this idea of using the parliamentary envelope to pay people working on behalf of the party? “This is really not a good idea, he is said to have told his MP. Because it is a crime.”
Excerpt from “RN: Where have Europe’s millions gone?”, a document to be seen in “Complément d’enquête” on September 19, 2024.
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