Marine Le Pen accuses judge of bias at EU embezzlement trial

euronews (in English)

Le Pen and her co-defendants are accused of paying staff who worked directly for the party in France and rarely set foot in Brussels between 2004 and 2016, therefore violating EU rules.

Transcript

00:00This Wednesday marks the third and last day that Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of France's far-right National Rally Party,

00:07took the stand in a long-awaited trial on charges of embezzling EU funds.

00:12Le Pen and more than 20 other senior party officials are currently standing trial at the Paris criminal court right behind me

00:21for allegedly misappropriating millions of euros intended to pay EU parliamentary assistants.

00:27Instead, Le Pen and her co-defendants are accused of paying staff who worked directly for her party in France

00:34and who rarely even set foot in Brussels or had any sort of role between 2004 and 2016, therefore violating EU regulation.

00:44During these three days, Marine Le Pen took the stand and she was quite combative, even accusing the judge of being biased towards her.

00:52Le Pen, who was an MEP for more than 12 years, maintained her innocence and said that it's not up to the EU Parliament

00:59to decide how these assistants should be employed.

01:03And the far-right leader is taking quite a big risk with this sort of argument

01:08because it found guilty Le Pen and her co-defendants face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros each.

01:17And most importantly, it could lead to her ineligibility to even run for office,

01:22a scenario that could be disastrous for Le Pen's plans for the 2027 presidential election,

01:29her fourth and arguably most promising attempt.

01:33And this trial is scheduled to last until the end of November.

01:37Sofia Katsenkova reporting from Paris for Euronews.

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