She says to herself “ready to answer any questions”. For the first time, Marine Le Pen is questioned from 1:30 p.m., Monday October 14, before the Paris criminal court, at the trial of suspicions of fictitious employment of parliamentary assistants of the National Front. The MP, at the head of the RN group in the National Assembly, is appearing for embezzlement of public funds as a former MEP and complicity in the same offense as as former president of the far-right party. The former presidential candidate faces a prison sentence, a heavy fine and above all a penalty of ineligibility likely to hamper her ambitions for 2027. Follow our live stream.
A “serenity” which gave way to annoyance. Two weeks ago, at the opening of the hearing, Marine Le Pen, smiling, said to herself “serene”. But then his tone changed and hardened. “Everything we did, we had the right to do,” launched Marine Le Pen at the helm on Wednesday. “This first week cooled me down a little. I perceived a tone of partiality from the president”she confided to PointTHURSDAY.
A lot of preparation. Marine Le Pen worked a lot with her lawyer to understand the file inside out, those around her told franceinfo. For several weeks, those close to her have repeated that she has a lot to say and new elements to bring to court. Her defense is focused on two points: the functioning of French political parties is, according to her, poorly understood, and the fact that there was no personal enrichment.
Tried alongside 24 defendants. Dex-MEPs of the National Front, their parliamentary assistants and party collaborators, who appear as a legal entity in this trial scheduled to last until November 27. They are suspected of having set up or participated in a “centralized system” management of funds allocated to European deputies to pay their parliamentary assistants, which was used to pay employees working, in reality, for the frontist party. “When we had the opportunity, we tried to reconcile the law with the facts“, conceded former MEP Bruno Gollnisch on October 8.