WHAT’S AT STAKE FOR MARINE LE PEN?

Translated by Irene Cecchi

On September 30th started the trial against more than twenty members of the French party Rassemblement National, charged with embezzlement of European public funds or collusion in it.

The facts of the case date back to the period of 2004-2016, when the prosecution believes that the party would have created a systemic mechanism to fund the national activity with money allocated for the payment of parliamentary assistants in Strasbourg.

Among the defendants there is also Marine Le Pen, Europarlamentarian from 2004 to 2017 and also president of the party Rassemblement National from 2011 to 2021. She is currently a deputy at the French National Assembly but, if she will be found guilty during the trial that is supposed to end in two months time, she might have to face repercussions on her actual and future role.

In fact, the art. 432-15 of the French Code Pénal determines that public funds’ embezzlement is sanctioned with up to 10 years incarceration and a fine of 1.000.000 euros, a sum that can grow up to double the total revenue of the crime. Public funds include also European ones: there is the obligation to protect the financial interests of the European Union, established in the PIF Directive and adopted by member states.

If she will be found guilty, she would risk a 10 years detention and the resulting suspension of civil rights, meaning she wouldn’t be allowed to run for Presidency in the 2027 election, when Macron’s mandate will come to its end.

The European Parliament holds the position of the prosecution at the trial, demanding a financial damage of 2 million euros since the party already reimbursed 1 million euros, an action that the same Rassemblement National claimed not to be an admission of guilt.

“We didn’t break any rules. I believe in this trial there is parliamentary freedom at stake” said Le Pen.

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