Nanterre (AFP)

Is the RN in default? This is what one of his ex-employees says who has taken legal action to obtain payment of some 15,000 euros in compensation from the party, who in turn denounces "abusive procedure".

According to a summons consulted on Tuesday by AFP, the far-right party was convened on April 3 before the Nanterre court at the request of a student recruited initially in 2016 on a fixed-term contract as an assistant at the headquarters of the RN.

The case takes a judicial turn in March 2019: the RN pursues his ex-employee for breach of a confidentiality clause and obtains reason on the merits.

But at the same time, the industrial tribunal orders the party to pay more than 20,000 euros in compensation (overtime, paid holidays, etc.) to the young man after having reclassified his contract as a permanent contract and the end of his mission in "dismissal without real and serious cause", according to the judgment consulted by AFP.

Since then, the party has paid part of the compensation but still has to pay "14,845 euros", according to Me Noémie Le Bouard, the young man's lawyer.

To recover its due, the latter initiated a "seizure-attribution" procedure so that the funds are directly withdrawn from an RN account. But the bank responded in January that there were just over 3,000 euros in the account, according to a document consulted by AFP.

The young man therefore asks the court of Nanterre to "note the cessation of payments" of the RN, "that its recovery is manifestly impossible" and to "pronounce the opening of a judicial liquidation procedure" in order to be able to recover his compensation.

For the treasurer of RN Wallerand de Saint-Just, this is "manifestly (a) completely abusive procedure". "I have paid him 12,000 euros in recent months. And I will pay him the remaining 12,000 euros at the rate of 2,000 euros per month" - a payment that started "several months ago," said the lawyer to AFP. .

"I am in financial difficulty. I am paying a certain number of installment debts", that is to say in installments, he recognized.

"I don't have to accede to his request for a timetable," replied Mr. Le Bouard.

The RN has been financially weakened for several years. He was notably summoned before a Russian court on June 2 for non-repayment of a loan of more than 9 million contracted in Russia in 2014.

Its vice-president Jordan Bardella recently indicated that the RN was "probably" going to have to launch a public loan, as had been the case before the Europeans in 2019.

© 2020 AFP