Marine Le Pen assures that the European Parliament has by no means criticized the FN “for having had assistants who worked with several deputies” | EUROtoday

A vital efficiency for her political future: the Paris Court of Appeal started, Tuesday January 20 within the afternoon, the interrogation of Marine Le Pen on the trial of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front, the place she is operating for the 2027 presidential election.

Under the woodwork of the primary room of the courthouse, the far-right chief took the stand a number of moments after the listening to resumed at 1:30 p.m. Her interrogation is scheduled to final till Wednesday night.

The trade with President Michèle Agi started on the very technical level of pooling the parliamentary assistants of MEPs. “I note that over this entire period of ten years the European Parliament has never either advised us or criticized us for having had assistants who clearly worked with several Members and this knowledge was brought, in my opinion, to the information of the European Parliament”declared Marine Le Pen.

“The term “system” [institutionnalisé de détournements de fonds] bothers me, as a result of we’ve got the sensation of manipulation”additionally mentioned the triple candidate for the Elysée. “The cases of parliamentary assistants must be analyzed one after the other, because it appears to me that they overlap with very different realities”supported the boss of the RN deputies on the bar.

Damage of three.2 million euros

Justice accuses Marine Le Pen, the National Rally (then known as National Front) and ten different executives of paying workers of the occasion, which was then experiencing monetary difficulties as a result of poor electoral outcomes, between 2004 and 2016, with cash from the European Parliament. Of the 25 convicted at first occasion, solely half appealed.

The information represent “a succession of cases that are in reality very different from each other, which last, as far as I am concerned, over twelve years, since I was a MEP for twelve years”argued Marine Le Pen at the beginning of her interrogation.

On March 31, 2025, the Paris legal courtroom declared her responsible and sentenced her to 5 years of ineligibility with quick execution, stopping her from operating within the subsequent presidential election, whereas the potential candidate was hovering over voting intentions for the primary spherical.

At first occasion, the judges established the financial harm to the Parliament of Strasbourg at 3.2 million euros, as soon as deducted 1.1 million euros of funds unduly paid however already reimbursed by a number of the defendants.

At a time when the far proper is presenting an unprecedented variety of 120 deputies within the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen, caught up within the practices of the occasion’s lean years, might see her fourth candidacy for the presidential election prevented by the courts and have to present option to her foal Jordan Bardella.

Julien Odoul idle within the European Parliament

Tuesday, the courtroom of attraction started the day with the questioning of Yonne MP Julien Odoul, having joined the far-right occasion in 2014, positioned in nice problem over the truth of his job as parliamentary assistant to a Frontist MEP, Mylène Troszczynski, in 2014 and 2015. And this whereas the group chart of the National Front revealed in winter 2015, which can entice the eye of the European Parliament, presenting him as a “special advisor” to the cupboard of the president of the occasion, Marine Le Pen.

Despite the contract theoretically placing him on the service of the MEP, within the first months, he didn’t “not worked for Mylène Troszczynski because she does not [lui] gave no work”mentioned Julien Odoul, 40, on the bar. Over a interval of a yr and a half, he’ll solely have 12 communications along with his theoretical superior. Of their three calls, the longest will final 4 minutes and seventeen seconds. “In retrospect, she didn’t need my services”he mentioned regretfully.

Presenting himself as idle, arriving in a disorganized occasion, Julien Odoul claimed to have then informally positioned himself on the service of Marine Le Pen as a result of “Mylène Troszczynski told me to make myself useful within the National Front headquarters”.