French far-right leader Marine Le Pen struck a conciliatory tone in court as she seeks to overturn an embezzlement conviction in a case that will determine whether one of the country’s most popular politicians will be able to run in next year’s presidential election.
Ms Le Pen said late on Tuesday that “if any fault was indeed committed” she and her party were never aware they might be crossing a line. The change in strategy comes as she tries to throw out a five-year election ban that first-instance judges said in March should apply immediately owing to the risk of a repeat offence given her previous denials.
“We had no sense that we were committing any offence when we hired our assistants,” Ms Le Pen said after a judge summarised the case on Tuesday. Ms Le Pen and several other National Rally members are accused of having hired aides during her time at the European Parliament using EU funds through “fake” contracts to fill the party’s coffers.
Le Pen then criticised the European Parliament for failing to raise the alarm “as it should have done” if there was anything amiss in the paperwork. “It was aware of all the elements constituting these contracts,” she said. “We never concealed anything.”
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Ms Le Pen is expected to provide fuller testimony next week.
Given the stakes, the appeal will be less about the actual offence that dates back years, but rather whether it can justify taking Ms Le Pen out of the electoral equation. The fallout from the ban has attracted criticism from political allies, with US president Donald Trump calling it an “example of European leftists using lawfare to silence free speech”.
The Paris court of appeal’s decision, expected by the summer, will ultimately shape the political battle to replace president Emmanuel Macron as he nears the last year of his final term.
If Ms Le Pen loses her appeal and the full ban is confirmed, the National Rally is expected to field Jordan Bardella (30) as its presidential candidate. While both present different public profiles, some recent polls point toward either candidate edging out political rivals to claim one of the biggest jobs in global politics.
Ms Le Pen (57) has overseen a decade-long strategy that sought to play down the party’s historic anti-immigrant rhetoric and has made electoral gains in former far-left strongholds. She stood out during her first bid for the presidency in 2012 when she initially came out in favour of lowering the retirement age to 60, before back-peddling.
Meanwhile, the younger and more polished Mr Bardella is widely viewed as more palatable to the business community and better positioned to attract traditional right-wing voters.
The criminal case against Ms Le Pen focuses on the alleged improper use of a budget allocation for EU aides between 2009 and 2016. Ms Le Pen is accused of having misused about €474,000 with contracts to hire her own aides and encouraging others to divert millions of euros more.
The Paris criminal court ruled at the time that Ms Le Pen and several other National Rally members took part in a “system” to improperly collect EU funds. They allegedly hired aides that “didn’t assist the lawmaker in carrying out their tasks as a member of the European Parliament” but instead worked to spearhead the party’s domestic agenda. A total of 24 other people as well as the party were convicted.
The Paris court gave Ms Le Pen a two-year jail term – a sentence that is on hold while she appeals – and the immediately-applicable election ban. The judges also ordered the payment of about €3.5 million in damages to the European Parliament. During the appellate trial, Ms Le Pen will have 10 defendants and the party by her side after several others did not challenge their conviction. – Bloomberg
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