Trial of RN parliamentary assistants: an update on the case

On Monday, the Paris Criminal Court opens the trial of 27 public figures, including Marine Le Pen, in the case of the Rassemblement National (RN) parliamentary assistants. This case, which involves a number of party executives, is marked by accusations of misappropriation of European funds through fictitious employment. The hearing will run until 27 November.

The defendants: a majority of emblematic figures from the RN

The defendants include several well-known faces from the Rassemblement National: Marine Le Pen, Louis Aliot, Bruno Gollnisch and even Jean-Marie Le Pen. All are accused of participating, directly or indirectly, in a scheme to misappropriate funds allocated by the European Parliament to pay parliamentary assistants. In reality, these employees mainly worked for the party in France.

A total of 27 people, including 14 former parliamentary assistants, are on trial for ‘misappropriation of public funds’ and ‘complicity in the misappropriation of funds’. If found guilty, they could face up to 10 years‘ imprisonment and 5 years’ ineligibility.

Suspicions dating back to 2015

The case came to light in 2015 when an anonymous tip was sent to the French justice system. Following this alert, initial investigations revealed that many of the RN’s parliamentary assistants, who were supposed to be working in Strasbourg or Brussels, were in fact working for the party in France. According to the investigation, this scheme enabled nearly €3 million to be embezzled between 2004 and 2016.

One striking example: an assistant paid from Marine Le Pen’s European budget spent most of her time in Nanterre, at the party’s headquarters, according to clocking-in and clocking-out records. Another employee, officially employed as a parliamentary assistant, was in fact Jean-Marie Le Pen’s private secretary.

Marine Le Pen at the heart of the system?

Marine Le Pen, Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017, is at the centre of this affair. Indicted in June 2017, she is accused of having set up this parallel funding system. According to the judges, the current President of the RN could not have been unaware of the fraudulent scheme, and may even have instigated it.

An email dated 2014, found during a search of the party’s headquarters, supports these suspicions. In this message, the treasurer at the time warns Marine Le Pen: ‘In the years to come, we will only get by if we make significant savings thanks to the European Parliament and if we obtain additional repayments’. Some eyewitness accounts confirm that Marine Le Pen advised the MEPs to hire just one parliamentary assistant, with the rest of the budget going to the party.

How will the RN defend itself?

The Rassemblement National, which is denouncing an ‘unfair’ procedure, maintains its innocence. ‘We have committed no offence’, asserts Marine Le Pen. The party maintains that the MEPs and their assistants are not employees of the European Parliament, but of the RN: ‘The assistants were hired by the MEPs under a private law contract’, points out Alexandre Varaut, MEP.

The RN also defends itself by invoking the legitimacy of employing party activists and supporters. According to Alexandre Varaut, ‘some MEPs felt that it was their duty not only to work on legislation, but also to be active on the ground in France’.

The trial of a party or a system?

This trial is a major test for the RN, at a time when Marine Le Pen is trying to bolster her image in the run-up to the next elections. Beyond the accusations, it raises the question of the party’s internal organisation and its relationship with public funds. The presence of figures such as Jean-Marie Le Pen, Bruno Gollnisch and Louis Aliot shows that this system, if proven, was much more than an isolated case.

Accusations of fraud at the RN: the party counters and denounces an attempt to destabilise the party

Representatives of the Rassemblement National have denounced what they describe as a ‘crude attempt to destabilise’ the party in the face of accusations levelled against it and several of its members in connection with the affair of fictitious employment in the European Parliament. Jordan Bardella, current chairman of the RN, is particularly targeted by controversial documents casting doubt on the legitimacy of his student employment.

A forgery according to the RN: Jordan Bardella defends himself

Alexandre Varaut, ex-lawyer for the RN and now spokesman in this affair, has come to Bardella’s defence, telling Mediapart that ‘the diary presented is a forgery’. He insists that the RN president never wrote these annotations, even though he acknowledges that the handwriting looks similar. ‘Jordan has seen these documents, it looks like his handwriting, but it’s not his,’ Varaut insists.

However, revelations in Libération contradict this version. The daily claims to have subjected the documents to a ‘professional handwriting analysis’, which concluded that there was a very high probability that the handwriting was indeed Bardella’s. In the face of these conclusions, the party continues to refute any irregularity and to express its doubts about the veracity of this evidence.

The RN justifies Jordan Bardella’s employment

In a statement published at the beginning of September, the Rassemblement National recalled the circumstances surrounding Bardella’s employment while he was still a student. The party explains that he was recruited on a part-time basis, from 16 February to 30 June 2015, on a salary of €1,200 net per month.

According to the RN, he carried out this work ‘in full compliance with the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure and French legislation’.

The press release also states that neither Jean-François Jalkh, a former MEP, nor Olaf (the European Anti-Fraud Office), nor the French justice system ‘have found any elements justifying an offence’ after analysing his case. The RN stresses that ‘no one will be fooled by this crude attempt at destabilisation’ ahead of the opening of the trial.

What does the future hold for this new lead?

It remains to be seen whether the Paris public prosecutor’s office will decide to take up these new elements, opening a preliminary investigation or an incidental procedure. For the moment, the public prosecutor’s office has confirmed to franceinfo that it has not been seized of this specific case.