Marine Le Pen faces trial over EU fund misuse, risking her political future as she aims for the 2027 French presidential election.
Marine Le Pen, the big name in France’s far-right National Rally, is in a tight spot as she’s going to trial starting Monday on big claims of stealing money from the European Union.
This big deal, which is going on for nine weeks, could really mess with her chances of running for president in 2027.
With a new mix of centrist and conservative folks in charge after the June-July elections, Le Pen’s trial is getting a lot of attention from her enemies who want to use any problems that come up against her.
People think this trial might distract her and her fellow National Rally members, including Le Pen, from doing their job as the opposition in Parliament while they’re all busy defending themselves.
Le Pen has been trying hard to make her party look better and appeal to more people since she stepped down as leader three years back.
The National Rally has done pretty well in recent elections, winning big at both the European and national levels.
But if she’s found guilty, it could really knock her out of the running for the presidency.
The National Rally and 27 top people are being accused of using money meant for EU parliamentary aides to pay for political work for the party from 2004 to 2016—which was totally against the rules back then.
Le Pen's future in the balance as French far-right officials go on trial for alleged EU funds misuse
— Graham Woodbridge (@gwnott) September 30, 2024
'The stakes are high for Marine Le Pen as she and other officials from the French far-right party National Rally go on trial Monday [30/09/2024]… (1/3) https://t.co/MoliRVDwn7
Le Pen is sticking to her story that she didn’t do anything wrong, saying the case is all about politics. “Parliamentary assistants don’t work for the Parliament.
They’re political assistants to elected officials, which is what they’re supposed to do,” she said, explaining all the different jobs her assistants did, from writing speeches to handling logistics.
If she’s found guilty, Le Pen and the others could face really harsh punishments, like up to ten years in jail and huge fines of €1 million ($1.1 million) each.
They might also lose their civil rights or be banned from holding public office, which would really put a damper on Le Pen’s dreams of becoming the French president after Macron’s time.
She was the second-place finisher in both the 2017 and 2022 elections.
The National Rally has already paid back €1 million to the European Parliament, some of which was related to Le Pen’s money troubles.
This whole investigation started when Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament at the time, got a tip in 2015 about possible fraud with European funds used by National Front officials.
