This Monday Marine Le Pen sat down again port of the accused cha Paris Court announced, for the first time, in the process of False parliamentary assistants White people. He did this amidst the anticipation of a hundred journalists who were waiting for him at the door of Victor Hugo’s room. As soon as he entered, greeted and faced with a lot of questions, he answered with a forced smile: “We don’t need to prepare when we tell the truth.”
This is the first time that the leader of the right-wing party has given evidence in court. A packed room, where the suits made a difference between the accused and the public. No one wanted to miss the moment, and about an hour after the trial began, Le Pen approached the podium and began to speak. “Good evening everyone,” he said, looking around, as if it was a political meeting. Marine has a hard time separating himself from Le Pen, even though the situation and circumstances are very different.
“I don’t have any.” don’t feel like you’ve done a little wrong, a little violation of the law,” he said, raising his voice at the insistence of the president of the court. The political method of subtly evading questions does not work in this court, and this made Marine Le Pen lose her form at a certain point in her speech because, for her, “politics” of a MEP in France “This is an important part of his work.”
The Director of National Regrouping is He is accused of embezzlement and theft of public funds in Europe using suspected supporters of the European Parliament for the party’s benefit. The rules are clear, parliamentary assistants cannot do direct work for political parties outside of their parliamentary role. In addition, they must stay indoors Brussels, Strasbourg o Luxembourg, the cities where the parliament is located.
LePen’s ‘Right Hand’
In the case of Le Pen’s parliamentary assistant and right-wing woman, Catherine Griset, Nothing happened, as the contracts and evidence obtained after years of investigation show. Griset worked as an assistant in the parliament, between 2008 and 2016, and regular contracts. At the same time, he also held a party in Paris, as evidenced by security documents, at the Parliament and at the party headquarters in Nanterre, outside the French capital; between October 2014 and August 2015, Catherine’s Parliamentary access card did not contain any entries. On the contrary, the history of the documents and the output from the party headquarters show that during that time, Catherine went to the headquarters about twice a month.
In addition, the agent could not prove that he lived in Brussels during those years. He defends himself, confirming that he sometimes entered Parliament, “in the same way,” with Marine Le Pen. Even the leader of the fight against fraud in Europe confirms that it is something “very unlikely” because of the security of the building.
“I don’t touch Parliament or my professional email!”
“At the beginning of 2015, Catherine asked me to no longer be an assistant in the EU Parliament because it was difficult to go to Brussels. Her life had changed and she asked me to be her assistant. And I agreed,” Le Pen explained on Monday before the Court. “When I wanted to resume transfer as a local agent, I didn’t have enough budget and had to leave it empty,” added the veteran leader.
President of the court, Bénédicte de Perthuishe tried to interrupt Le Pen several times, which caused the leader to become angry and finally he admitted that “parliamentary assistants (like Catherine) could do the work of the party, when they no longer had the work of an MEP.” Le Pen also surprised the room by saying that “Catherine has more luck than my emails.” “I calmly tell the court: I will not touch my Parliament email or my professional email! The only email I touch is my email!” added the critic.
Le Pen knows her political career is in jeopardy. HE face to one imprisonment up to 10 yearsis one a fine of one million euros and a ten-year ban from politics. A decision that could end his dream of running for the next presidential election in 2027.
