The French criminal prosecution service has today opened an investigation into “illegal financing” by Marine Le Pen and her far-right party, the National Rally.
This came after he came third in parliamentary elections held over the weekend.
Parisian judicial sources confirmed on Tuesday that the new criminal investigation is linked to Le Pen’s bid to become French president in 2022.
“A judicial investigation was opened following a report from the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing to the courts,” one said.
The investigation is believed to be linked to alleged theft by the RN (Rassemblement National, in French) of funds generated by taxpayers to the European Parliament.
French criminal prosecutors have today opened an investigation into the “illegal financing” of Marine Le Pen and her far-right National Rally party, days after her party suffered a surprising electoral defeat.
Marine Le Pen arrives at the headquarters of the far-right RN party in Paris yesterday, a day after the second round of French legislative elections. The French president was set to begin on Monday to pull France out of its worst political uncertainty in decades, after the left defeated the far right in an election in which no group won an absolute majority.
Ms Le Pen already faces up to 10 years in prison and a ban on running for office if convicted after an embezzlement trial that starts in Paris in September.
They say there is compelling evidence the 55-year-old illegally accessed around €620,000 (£513,000) on behalf of her party.
Ms Le Pen will appear in the dock alongside 12 other members of the RN, formerly known as the National Front.
On learning of the case last September, Ms Le Pen accused the judiciary of acting in a “primarily political” manner.
He added: “We will present our arguments to the court on their merits.” All those involved deny any wrongdoing.
Marine Le Pen’s supporters react after the publication of projections based on the actual vote count in selected constituencies, Sunday, June 30, 2024 in northern France. French voters propelled the far-right National Rally party to a strong lead in first-round legislative elections on Sunday and plunged the country into political uncertainty, according to poll projections.
Le Pen’s own father, Jean-Marine Le Pen, 95, founder of the FN, was also on the list of defendants but was ruled last week to be “unfit to stand trial” because of his age.
Embezzlement is a crime punishable in France by up to 10 years in prison, and fines of around £1m are also among the penalties that judges can impose.
In Le Pen’s case, prosecutors are asking for “the additional penalty of deprivation of the right to be elected, for a maximum period of five years,” said a source close to the case.
Ms Le Pen is currently a member of parliament, so if she were convicted after the trial, she would be ruled out of the 2027 presidential election, despite presenting herself as a future president.
The investigation into the RN fraud began in March 2015, when the European Parliament announced it had referred possible irregularities to the EU anti-fraud office.
Supporters of the green party Les Ecologistes-EELV celebrate the first results of the second round of France’s legislative elections during the party’s election night event in Paris on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Place de la République to protest against the far-right National Rally party last week in Paris, France.
These are mainly salaries paid to parliamentary assistants and even to Le Pen’s bodyguard.
Le Pen is accused of personally diverting some £114,000 (€137,000) of EU funds illegally taken during her time as an MEP between 2004 and 2017 to party coffers.
This effectively means that the party was using EU money for its own business in Paris, rather than for work in Brussels.
Le Pen came second behind Emmanuel Macron in the race to become French president in 2022, after a similar result in 2017.
The party’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, also came second behind Jacques Chirac in the 2002 presidential election.
Mr Le Pen has already been convicted in a criminal court, notably for spreading racial hatred, for Holocaust denial and for other anti-Semitic crimes.
Before Sunday evening, the RN was confidently predicting that it would win a majority in the National Assembly in Paris and form the next government.
Ms Le Pen said she was hoping to become president in 2027, while her protégé, Jordan Bardella, 28, would become prime minister.
But the election was won by the New Popular Front – an alliance of left and centre parties created to block the RN – while Macron’s Renaissance/Together alliance came second.
No party won an absolute majority, which meant a hung parliament and political stalemate.
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