In the midst of the French election campaign, accusations of embezzlement are being leveled against the right-wing presidential candidate. Marine Le Pen cause a stir. A report by EU anti-fraud authority Olaf with allegations against Le Pen was received on March 11 and is being examined, the Paris public prosecutor said on Sunday at the request of the German press agency.
Allegation: €137,000 in EU funds embezzled
Investigative news portal “Mediapart” published parts of the paper on Saturday. According to the report, Le Pen is accused of embezzling nearly €137,000 in EU funds during her time as an MEP between 2004 and 2017.
Le Pen’s lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, quoted by Mediapart in the report, denies the allegations. The presidential candidate reserves the right to take legal action against former assistants or contractors who may have embezzled funds or committed other misconduct without Le Pen’s knowledge.
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From Bosselut’s point of view, the Olaf authority is not independent. In addition, the lawyer criticized the timing of publication shortly before the second round of the April 24 presidential election.
In addition to Le Pen, according to “Mediapart”, three other former EU parliamentarians from his party – then Front National, now Rassemblement National – are named in the Olaf report: his father Jean-Marie, his ex-partner Louis Aliot and the former vice-president of the party, Bruno Gollnisch.
All together they say they didn’t spend a good 486,000 euros as intended. The funds that, in fact, can only be used as part of your work as an MEP, were spent for national political purposes, for example, or to support service providers close to the party.
Aliot, now the mayor of Perpignan, rejected the allegations on Sunday in Franceinfo. Olaf and Mediapart are operating outside the law and he expects legal action to find out where the leaks came from and how the investigation went, Aliot-
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The allegations are not the first of their kind to incriminate Le Pen and his party. False employment claims have been circulating for years. It concerns the possible employment of assistants to several French MPs who were paid with money from the EU Parliament, but who actually worked for the party.