French prosecutors on Wednesday handed down a verdict against Marine Le Pen, who is accused of embezzling EU money and whose presidential ambitions hang in the balance.
Marine Le Pen has been throwing all her energy into fighting what she believes are unfair accusations that her party has misappropriated funds of the European Parliament. Leading lady French far right now faces a pivotal moment in a major trial in which her eligibility to run for president in 2027 is at stake.
Le Pen is awaiting a guilty verdict as prosecutors wrap up their case on Wednesday and present a sentencing proposal. The trial is due to end on November 27 and a verdict is expected later.
National Assembly and 25 of its leaders, including Le Pen, are accused of using money intended for EU parliamentary assistants to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016 instead, in breach of the 27-nation bloc's rules. The National Assembly was called the National Front at the time.
As she headed into a Paris courtroom last week, Le Pen wished Donald Trump "good luck" in the message on X. France's far-right leader, who has vowed to run for the presidency for a fourth time in 2027, may have in mind that Trump's felony conviction from earlier this year hasn't diverted him from the White House.
From the beginning of the long and complex trial, Le Pen has been emphatic, sitting in the front row, staying late into the night and expressing her exasperation at the accusations, which she believes are wrong.
The trained lawyer watches the proceedings with extreme attention, occasionally puffing out her cheeks, indicating her disapproval with vigorous head nods and shuffling over to confer with the lawyers, her heels clicking loudly on the hard wooden floor of the courtroom.
If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) each. In recent days, however, Le Pen's biggest concerns have focused on the possibility of the court imposing a ban on her candidacy. A similar case involving the French centrist party ended in fines and suspended jail sentences earlier this year.
She could be seen discussing with her lawyers the legal complexities of such a scenario, which could make or even destroy her bid for another presidential bid. Le Pen was second only to the president in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections Emmanuel Macron and her party's electoral support has been growing in recent years.
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Le Pen appeared to be setting the stage for a possible conviction with comments about guilt that she described as predictable - yet she said it was not out of the question for her to give up or lower her political ambitions.
"I have a feeling we've failed to convince you." Le Pen told the three-judge panel last week as she detailed her arguments in an hour-and-a-half-long speech interspersed with political remarks that seemed to have come from many journalists in the courtroom.
Le Pen has rejected accusations that she was at the head of a "system" to siphon money from the EU parliament for the benefit of her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021.
Instead, it argued that the assistants' tasks should have been tailored to the various activities of MEPs, including some highly political party-related tasks.
Parliamentary assistant "it's status", she said. "It says nothing about the job, nothing about what kind of work is required, from secretary to speechwriter, from lawyer to graphic designer, from bodyguard to MEP office staff."
Le Pen's co-defendants - most of whom owe their political or professional careers to her - testified under her strict supervision.
Some of the assistants gave embarrassed and confused explanations when faced with a lack of evidence that their work was related to the EU Parliament.
They could often hear her bringing clarifications or corrections, even when it was not her turn to appear in court. Sometimes she interrupted a point they were making with a loud "voilà" ("that's it").
Le Pen insisted that the party "never had the slightest reproach from Parliament" until 2015, when Martin Schulz, then President of the European body, alerted the French authorities to the possible fraudulent use of EU funds by members of the National Front.
"Let's go back in time. The rules either didn't exist or were much more flexible," She said.
Le Pen feared the court would draw incorrect conclusions from the party's common practices, which she said were legitimate.
"It's unfair." she repeated. "When someone is convinced that a tomato means cocaine, the whole grocery list becomes suspect!" She added.
The President of the Court Bénédicte de Perthuis said that no matter what the political issues may be, the court should stick to legal reasoning.
"In the end, the only question that matters ... is to determine on the basis of the body of evidence whether the parliamentary assistants were working for the Member to whom they were assigned or for the National Assembly," de Perthuis said.
European Parliament lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said the cost of the suspected embezzlement was estimated at €4.5 million. "It has become very clear in the last few weeks that the fraud has, I think, largely been proven," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Maisonneuve said some of the accused apparently received instructions, "to give the same collective answers like good soldiers for the party and save the boss".
In her last hearing before prosecutors on Wednesday, Le Pen urged judges to see "evidence of (her) innocent."
"The court can write that we are messy, sometimes disorganized... That's not a crime," She said.
France24/ gnews - RoZ
PHOTO - Marinr Le Pen's Facebook
