After Emmanuel Macron and the far-left’s double-crossing of the French electorate and the electoral system, news broke that Marine Le Pen was being investigated for alleged irregularities in the financing of the 2022 electoral campaign. Many believe that this is an abuse of justice for political purposes, as support for Le Pen is steadily growing and thus threatens the left’s rule.
On Tuesday, the 9th of July, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that Marine Le Pen‘s 2022 presidential campaign had become the subject of an investigation into suspicions of illegal financing, based on a report by the national commission that monitors campaign financing.
The commission, which is responsible for monitoring the regularity of campaign spending by candidates, which is limited and partially reimbursed by the State, sent a report to the Paris prosecutor’s office in 2023. The Public Prosecutor announced that the investigation, which was launched a week ago, was now continuing under the direction of the investigating judge. The prosecutor’s office did not share any other details about the investigation, which focuses on allegations of fraud and embezzlement.
Two years ago, Marine Le Pen, as leader of the National Rally party (RN), invested almost 11.5 million euros in the presidential battle, her third in a row. In mid-December 2022, the commission refused the justification of 316,182 euros of expenses as being accrued in connection with the installation and removal of electoral material on 12 buses. It marked them as irregular, which Le Pen appealed against.
873,576 euros in expenses were also rejected by the relevant commission in her 2017 campaign, reports La Croix. The vast majority of these (95 percent) were covered by loans from the National Rally and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen‘s small party. At the time, Le Pen did not decide to appeal.
In June, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the National Rally party “for overcharging for campaign aids used by its candidates before the 2012 elections.” The court will rule on the case of Le Pen, who was also elected Member of Parliament in the recent elections, and 24 other people at the end of September, “on charges of embezzlement of European funds earmarked for the salaries of MEPs’ assistants between 2004 and 2016,” the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reports.
Ž. N.
