Marine Le Pen, her father and 25 colleagues should stand trial over allegedly giving party members fake jobs as assistants in the European Parliament, Paris prosecutors have announced, in a blow to National Rally leader’s French presidential ambitions, reports The Telegraph.
The prosecutors’ call comes after a seven-year-old probe into whether the then Front National, or FN, used money earmarked for EU parliamentary assistants to pay staff who were working for the party and is the clearest indication yet that the case will go to court.
The European Parliament estimated that €6.8 million (£5.9m) in EU funds allegedly went to FN assistants who were not working for MEPs, but doing party work in France between 2009 and 2017.
The party denies the charges and has always said it can prove it did not embezzle cash.
It was prompted by a report from parliament, which had noticed some assistants were holding high-ranking positions within Le Pen’s party that seemed irreconcilable with their full-time parliamentary job.
“We dispute this position which seems to be an erroneous understanding of the work of opposition lawmakers and their assistants, which is above all a political one,” said the RN in a statement.