From Michel Mercier to Sylvie Goulard, several executives or former elected MoDem have been indicted since mid-November in the survey of parliamentary assistants of MEPs.

  • What is wrong with the MoDem?

Judges of the financial center of the Paris court, who have been investigating the case since 2017, suspect that MoDem MEP colleagues have been paid by European Parliament funds, while they were assigned to other tasks for centrist party.

The investigation, opened for "breach of trust" and "misappropriation of public funds", focuses on the 2009-2014 legislature but also, to a lesser extent, on previous legislatures. In the event that these accusations are well founded, this would correspond to a system of fictitious jobs.

>> To read: Sylvie Goulard indicted for "embezzlement of public funds"

At this point, seven former MoDem MEPs are in the sights of justice. The investigators are also interested in the role played by the financial executives and party officials, suspected of having organized this system of compensation litigious.

"There are indications that the MoDem" could have institutionalized, in its mode of operation, the use of the resources of the European Parliament for its benefit, "the investigators estimated in a summary report of 2018 consulted by AFP .

  • What does the party say?

The MoDem has always denied any fictitious job. The assistants, who worked "part time" for the party, "were paid for a fraction of the time by the European Parliament and for the other fraction of the time by our movement," insisted Francois Bayrou on Wednesday, saying he There was nothing wrong with that.

Faced with the investigators, several former assistants have however challenged the reality of the work done for Parliament. In a book, former Vice President MoDem Corinne Lepage said the party had "demanded" that one of his assistants work for the MoDem - which she refused.

Assertions disputed by the centrist party, which has transmitted to the court documents supposed to prove the reality of the work done and which assigns these accusations to a settlement of political account.

  • What are the rules in effect?

MEPs have a monthly budget of around 25,000 euros to pay their assistants, regardless of their status. The "accredited" devote all their time to Brussels or Strasbourg. The "locals" must support the parliamentarian in his country of origin.

To regulate the granting of these envelopes, the European regulations since 2009 that the work of the assistants are "in connection with Europe": deputies must detail in the work contracts of their employees, the tasks to be performed.

But the drafting of contracts can be vague, which makes the investigations delicate. Difficult in this context to "formally acknowledge the reality or not of the accomplishment of a job," says the synthesis report consulted by AFP.

The accumulation of part-time jobs for Parliament and the party complicates the situation even more. How to check if the distinction between one and the other has been respected? "The border between their partisan and parliamentary tasks" is "difficult to establish", concedes the report.

  • Was the practice common?

The MoDem is not the only party targeted by suspicions of fictitious jobs in the European Parliament: similar investigations have been opened against the insubordinate France (LFI) and the National Rally (ex-FN), in which about twenty people , including Marine Le Pen, have been indicted.

In the most advanced investigation, that on the FN, the damage was estimated by Brussels at seven million euros for the period 2009-2017. The investigators, who pointed to the "total or almost total absence of work" for the EU, suspect that the party has put in place a fraudulent "system" in a "concerted and deliberate" manner.

  • What are the risks implicated?

The "misappropriation of public funds", the most serious offense among those detained by investigators, is theoretically punishable by 10 years imprisonment and a fine in millions of euros.

The danger for the MoDem is, however, primarily of a political nature. The case has already cost in 2017 their ministerial positions to François Bayrou (Justice), Marielle de Sarnez (European Affairs) and Sylvie Goulard (Armies). With these indictments, it is the entire party that is weakened a few weeks of municipal.

With AFP