"So the dirty tricks of the European Union, a few days before the second round, I am very used to that and I think that the French are absolutely not fooled", underlined the far-right leader during a country visit to the market in Saint-Pierre-en-Auge, Normandy.
Marine Le Pen and her relatives are accused by the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) of having embezzled around 600,000 euros of European public money during their mandates as MEPs, according to a new report submitted to justice in March. French and revealed on Saturday by Mediapart.
"I obviously absolutely dispute these accusations of which I have not been aware, which already poses a problem in terms of the rule of law, of which I have not been provided with any proof, any element, despite the requests that I was able to do”, added the candidate of the National Rally.
The document, of which Mediapart publishes extracts, concerns the fees that political groups can use in the context of their mandate as MEPs and that Marine Le Pen and her relatives would have used for national political purposes, for personal expenses or for services for the benefit of commercial companies close to his party, the RN and the far-right parliamentary group Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENL).
The other three former MEPs implicated are his father Jean-Marie Le Pen, his former companion Louis Aliot and Bruno Gollnisch, member of the national office of the RN and the ENL.
The European Parliament intends to "proceed to recover the sums unduly paid", one of its officials told AFP on Sunday.
Marine Le Pen has been prosecuted since June 2017 in the investigation carried out in Paris on suspicion of fictitious jobs in the European Parliament of party assistants.
She is indicted for "embezzlement of public funds" and "complicity" in this offense as part of this investigation.
© 2022 AFP