France: Le Pen Embezzlement Trial Begins

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Facts

  • The embezzlement trial of National Rally (RN) Member of Parliament Marine Le Pen and more than 20 members of her party began Monday. She's accused of creating 'fake jobs' to illegally take EU Parliament funds and use them for party operations.[1][2]
  • Prosecutors allege that between 2004 and 2016, RN hired several parliamentary assistants — who were paid with EU funds and only worked for the party in violation of funding laws.[3][4]
  • Former party treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just and former RN members of the European Parliament — including Le Pen's father, 96-year-old Jean-Marie — are among the other people standing trial.[5][1]
  • According to the EU's anti-fraud office, from 2010-2015, Le Pen also hired her former sister-in-law, Catherine Griset, with a salary of about €294.5K ($328.5K), despite Griset only spending 12 hours at her Parliament office in Brussels from 2014-2015.[6]
  • Le Pen is also accused of hiring her father's bodyguard for three months in 2009 while he was working for Jean-Marie, and another three months in 2011 for €7.2K ($8K) per month. In total, the defendants are accused of embezzling about €3M ($3.3M), or roughly twice the amount they're said to have worked.[6][3]
  • If convicted, Le Pen faces a possible 10 years in prison, a €1M ($1.1M) fine, and a five-year ban from holding public office. This comes as RN's electoral popularity has grown while Le Pen is eyeing the presidency in 2027.[4]

Sources: [1]BBC News, [2]The Telegraph, [3]Guardian, [4]Sky News, [5]New York Times and [6]Wsj.

Narratives

  • Left narrative, as provided by Le Monde.fr. These RN members have spent years cheating Europe's parliamentary system out of millions. After years of investigation, incriminating documents and testimony — most notably correspondence between party leaders — show that Le Pen and her colleagues deserve whatever punishments they're due.
  • Right narrative, as provided by Youtube. Le Pen is being politically prosecuted to keep her and her increasingly popular views on immigration away from power. As with Donald Trump in America, France's left-wing establishment is using the justice system to drum up bogus charges against a woman they see as a political threat. If anyone is committing a crime, it's the government.

Predictions