On Wednesday, November 13th, the Paris court handed down its indictment against the Rassemblement National (RN) and Marine Le Pen, at the end of a six-week trial in the European parliamentary assistants’ affair. The leading party of the French national Right is accused of having wrongly employed assistants in the European Parliament to serve the national political party. The prosecutor has requested a very severe sentence that could see Marine Le Pen jailed and made ineligible for public office for several years, thereby jeopardising her 2027 presidential election bid. The RN sees this as a political strategy to neutralise it.
This announcement came on the evening of Wednesday, November 13th: the public prosecutor’s office is recommending that Marine Le Pen serve five years’ imprisonment (two suspended), pay a €300,000 fine, and be ineligible to stand for election for five years—with provisional execution, meaning that, even in the—obvious—event of Marine Le Pen appealing, this appeal would not be sufficient to suspend the ban. The RN party would be fined €2 million. Provisional execution is a temporary remedy that allows a judgement to be enforced before the final judgement or appeal process is complete.
Other major political figures in the movement are also subject to heavy fines:
- 18 months‘ imprisonment, 12 of which suspended, a €30,000 fine and three years’ ineligibility with provisional execution against Louis Aliot, mayor of Perpignan; 10 months’ suspended imprisonment;
- a €20,000 fine and one year’s ineligibility with provisional execution against Julien Odoul, now deputy for the Yonne, who is very active and recognisable in the National Assembly; 18 months‘ imprisonment, 12 of which suspended;
- a €30,000 fine, and three years’ ineligibility with provisional execution against Nicolas Bay, now an MEP alongside Marion Maréchal.
The heavy sentences requested are extreme. The question of provisional execution is central, as Le Pen would automatically find herself suspended from her duties as a Member of Parliament and leader of the RN parliamentary group in the National Assembly. She would not be able to stand in the 2027 presidential election when she has always intended to do so.
For Marine Le Pen and her supporters, there is no doubt, given the severity of the sentences requested, that this is a political settling of scores. Members of the French judiciary, most of whom are on the Left, or even the far Left, believe that Marine Le Pen must be stopped in her tracks in order to prevent any prospect of electoral victory, including through the courts—something that was tried, but failed, in the United States where the multiple accusations made against Donald Trump did not stop his candidacy—or re-election.
The comparison with the U.S. lawfare against Trump was a point made by EU party group colleague and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, who expressed outrage at the news.
The Left is obsessed with preventing an ‘American-style’ scenario in France. The mainstream press is turning the argument on its head, arguing that it is Marine Le Pen herself who thinks she is Trump, playing the ‘victim’ card like him.
Nicolas Meizonnet, Member of Parliament for the Gard, who attended the hearing, noted the blatant bias of the prosecutor, which was openly displayed at one point during the trial when it came to analysing the case of one of the defendants. “I don’t have any evidence but I can’t ask for acquittal, it hurts me too much,” she explained. In the case analysed, the facts were insufficiently qualified. The prosecutor could have given the benefit of the doubt but preferred to tip the balance against the RN.
Marine Le Pen, interviewed by CNews on leaving court, returned to this episode:
There is a desire on the part of the public prosecutor’s office to deprive the French people of voting for whomever they wish.
“All the prosecution was interested in was being able to demand Marine Le Pen’s exclusion from political life, and to ruin the party. We understood that”, she added.
Under-fire RN president Jordan Bardella, currently on tour to promote his autobiographical essay, described the prosecutor’s indictment as “an attack on democracy” and denounced the “relentlessness” against Marine Le Pen.
Unexpected support came from former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who considered it “shocking” that Marine Le Pen should be declared ineligible, and who hoped that the fight against the RN would be waged “at the ballot box” and not in the courts. He noted the serious risk of a political conflagration that a harsh verdict against the RN could entail. He called for no further “widening” of “the gap between the ‘elites’ and the vast majority of our fellow citizens.” His comments were immediately roundly condemned within his political family.
It remains to be seen whether the court will follow the outrageous recommendations of the public prosecutor. The final verdict is expected by the end of November.
