It's the latest development in an eight-year-long judicial investigation, which was opened following a tip-off from the European Parliament. On Monday, September 18, the Paris prosecutor's office requested that 11 former Front National (FN, far-right, now renamed Rassemblement National, RN) MEPs be referred to the criminal court for "misappropriation of public funds." This was in addition to the charges of "complicity, by instructions, of embezzlement of public funds" for Jean-Marie Le Pen and Marine Le Pen, against 13 parliamentary assistants for concealment or complicity on the same charge, and against three people: service providers and former FN treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just, for "complicity, by aiding and abetting, of embezzlement of public funds." The RN, as a legal entity, is also concerned by this request for referral.

All are suspected of having taken part in a system aimed at financing FN expenses through the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016, by hiring parliamentary assistants working de facto for the party. "There was nothing accidental or isolated about the situations in question," wrote the magistrates in a 197-page indictment consulted by Le Monde. "[These] misappropriations (...) were part of a management overseen by the FN's successive leaders and gradually structured into a veritable centralized system, [while the party was] in great financial difficulty."

The damage caused by this "system," quantified over the period from 2009-2017, has been evaluated by the European Parliament at €6.8 million. A fraction was recovered from the salaries of MEPs still seating, following an administrative inquiry by Brussels. But significant sums remained unrecovered, including those relating to Marine Le Pen. In July, she paid the €326,401 she owed following an enforceable decision by the European Parliament.

But for the RN leader, the most crucial issue remains the legal aspect. The offense of "embezzling public funds" could carry a ten-year ban on eligibility for office in the event of conviction, which would put an end to Le Pen's presidential ambitions. "Unsurprisingly, the prosecutor's office is adopting the same philosophy as for the Mouvement démocrate [centrist, whose trial on the same charges will take place in October] and probably tomorrow for La France Insoumise [radical left]," Le Pen told Le Monde. "We contest this vision, which we believe to be erroneous, of the work of opposition MEPs and their assistants, which is above all political," she added. Through one of its lawyers, Patrick Maisonneuve, the European Parliament said that it "[took] note of the prosecutor's position, which the Parliament fully shares."

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