European justice rejects Marine Le Pen's appeal

Marine Le Pen is still stuck in the case of parliamentary badistants. On Wednesday 28 November, the European court rejected an appeal by the President of the National Assembly, who wanted to cancel a recovery of more than 41 000 euros claimed by the European Parliament for the questionable use of a parliamentary badistant.

This sum concerned the bodyguard of M^me Le Pen, Thierry Légier, paid as an badistant. This contract involved a part-time job as a local badistant over the period 1^st October to December 31, 2011.

The court of the European Union, "After considering all the arguments developed by Marine Le Pen, dismiss them or reject them for lack of evidence or legal basis"said in a statement the court established in Luxembourg. M^me Le Pen, who has been MEP from 2009 to 2017, announced in the wake that she was appealing.

Injury of 7 million euros

In June, the EU court had already confirmed that Marine Le Pen had to repay nearly 300,000 euros claimed by the European Parliament, because of the dubious employment of a parliamentary badistant, Catherine Griset, between 2010 and 2016. The president of the far-right party had criticized a decision "Grotesque". The Member of the North is not the only member of the former National Front to have been targeted by recovery procedures for badistant posts considered as fictitious by the European Parliament, which demanded repayments from her father , Jean-Marie Le Pen, and Bruno Gollnisch. The damage badessed by the European Parliament amounts to a total of € 7 million for the period 2009 to 2017.

In France, a separate judicial procedure gave rise to about fifteen indictments, including those of Marine Le Pen (embezzlement of public funds punishable by 10 years in prison and 1 million euros in fines) and the National Front in as a legal person. In this investigation, the French judges ordered at the end of June the seizure of 2 million euros of public aid due to the extreme right party. The party then disputed "Coup de force" "without legal basis" ensuring that he was risking " cease of payment ". The investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal had decided in September to reduce from 2 million to 1 million euros the judicial seizure.