Just two days after the decisive round of the French parliamentary elections, the judiciary began preliminary investigations against the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. The reason is the suspicion of illegal financing of her campaign for the 2022 presidential elections.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Tuesday that it involved campaign loans and embezzlement of funds. The investigation began on July 2 after a tip from the Campaign Accounts Commission.
11.5 million euros for the presidential campaign
In France, as in Austria, the costs of election campaigns are capped. The responsible committee checks the declarations of all candidates and part of it is reimbursed. Le Pen had invested around 11.5 million euros in her third presidential election campaign in 2022. The committee had already rejected part of the expenditure, including more than 300,000 euros for election campaign advertising on buses. Le Pen lost the 2022 presidential election in the second round against Emmanuel Macron.
Already in sight several times
The commission also criticized some of the expenses of the 2017 presidential election. About 870,000 euros that Le Pen received as a loan from a splinter party of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen was not recognized by the commission. In June, the Court of Cassation in Paris upheld the conviction of Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) party to a fine of 250,000 euros. The case concerned excessive invoices for campaign material of candidates in the 2012 National Assembly elections.
Problems also at EU level
In the autumn, Le Pen and 24 other suspects will stand trial on suspicion of embezzling EU funds. The trial begins on 30 September. According to the prosecutor, between 2004 and 2016, several assistants to RN members actually worked for the party and not for the MPs. Le Pen denies the charges.
The RN was ahead in the European elections and the first round of the French parliamentary elections. In the second election last Sunday, it only came third – after a tactical withdrawal of more than two hundred candidates from the other party camps. Le Pen, re-elected as an MP, wants to become parliamentary group leader again. She is also aiming for a fourth presidential candidate in 2027.
Source: Krone
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