The European Parliament informed Le Pen of the exact amount on July 8, but the document is not public. Le Pen’s lawyer, François Wagner, told AFP that his client appealed against this decision to the European Court of Justice.
The founder of the far-right National Front (FN) party was a member of the European Parliament with a one-year break from 1984 until 2019, i.e. 34 years. Le Pen demanded from parliament reimbursement of expenses for newsletters, pens, business cards, ties, umbrellas, kitchen scales, table clocks, smart bracelets, glasses for virtual reality and 129 bottles of wine. However, according to the EP, he was not entitled to this, as the rules of the EU institutions prohibit, among other things, the use of European funds for a political campaign.
In particular, OLAF found that many expert reports ordered by Le Pen from 2009 to 2018 were actually copied texts from freely available sources, but were charged excessive amounts for them.
Ninety-six-year-old Le Pen withdrew from public life for health reasons. In France, however, a trial is currently taking place with his former colleagues from the FN, who are suspected of having paid wages from European funds to employees who actually worked for the National Front between 2004 and 2016. Le Pen is among the more than twenty accused, and like the others, she faces up to ten years in prison, a fine of one million euros (CZK 25.2 million) and a ten-year ban on running for public office.
Le Pen was also supposed to appear before the court, but he submitted medical documents confirming that he is unable to testify. The former leader of the French extreme right nevertheless sang with a neo-Nazi musical group that visited him at his home at the end of September. According to the media, they are members of the neo-Nazi band Match Retour, which is affiliated with the Blood & Honor network.
Le Pen wants to file criminal charges against the people who allowed the band to come to her father’s house. According to her, the former MEP and founder of the National Front (FN) party, later renamed the National Association (RN), is so weak that he is unable to make clear decisions.