Le Pen defends during the trial for alleged embezzlement of EU funds that she committed no irregularities

MADRID 15 Oct. () –

The leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen, defended this Monday that she did not commit “not even the slightest irregularity” during her statement in the trial held for a case of alleged false parliamentary assistants with whom she and 30 other members of the French formation would have embezzled funds worth at least three million euros from the European Union.

“I don’t have the slightest feeling that I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegality,” Le Pen expressed during her statement in court, according to the French television network BFMTV.

Specifically, she is accused of paying three assistants who worked on behalf of the party with European funds, and this day’s session focused on the case of Catherine Griset, Le Pen’s historical assistant.

Despite denying the charges, he has acknowledged his “slowness” in reacting to the change in Griset’s personal situation, who had to reside in Brussels as she was listed as an accredited parliamentary assistant, although she lived in the Paris region and throughout One year he only spent twelve hours in the Belgian capital.

“Her personal situation had changed. She told me that she wanted to return to Paris. I reacted slowly,” said Le Pen, who also justified her assistant’s political activity because “it is part of the mandate” and that she does not see the ” difference” enters a national assistant and a European one.

The trial began last week in Paris within the framework of an investigation that maintains that at least three million euros were embezzled in the period between 2004 and 2016. These assistants would have focused on the party’s affairs in France, instead of fulfilling functions regarding the EU, as their contracts specified.

In addition to Le Pen, other party figures have also been accused, such as several former vice presidents, such as Wallerand de Saint-Just, Bruno Gollnisch, or Louis Aliot, as well as the spokesperson and deputy Julien Odoul and the former president of the party and father of the current leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen. In this case, he has been exempt from appearing in court due to his precarious state of health.

If they are found guilty, the French Justice provides for prison sentences of up to ten years in prison and the same amount of political disqualification, which could ruin their theoretical aspirations to run for president in 2027.