The long-standing presidential candidate is dealing with trial, together with 26 others, accused of embezzling thousands and thousands of euros in European Parliament funds by utilizing them to pay staffers to do home politics as an alternative of their work as parliamentary assistants. Her celebration, as a authorized entity, can also be dealing with costs.
Throughout 5 hours of testimony earlier this week, Le Pen sought to show the tables on the Parliament, describing it as an organ that co-opts its members, slicing them off from the residents they’re alleged to characterize.
Or, as she put it, MEPs threat being absorbed by the Blob.
“The European Parliament works in such a method that it swallows up the MEPs,” she claimed. “All the pieces is on the market throughout the European Parliament: You may sleep in, get your hair executed, go to the bookshop … All the pieces is completed in order that MEPs can dwell throughout the European Parliament.”
“The position of the celebration is to remind them to additionally interact in politics,” she added.
For Le Pen, the stakes are immense. She plans to run within the 2027 presidential election and is main within the polls. If convicted, she faces a most sentence of 10 years in jail, a high-quality of as much as €1 million and a potential five-year ban from public workplace.