Frankreichs Marine Le Pen steht wegen Fake-Jobs-Skandal vor Gericht

***The Telegraph reports:***

The two-month trial, which Ms Le Pen has blasted as politically motivated, threatens to cast a shadow over the RN’s record victory in July’s snap election, which saw the party win 126 seats and claim a kingmaker role over [Michel Barnier’s fragile minority government](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/18/macron-44th-most-popular-politician-as-new-pm-barnier-poll/).

EU lawmakers are allocated funds to cover expenses, including salaries for their assistants, but are not meant to use them to cross-fund party activities.

However, first flagged in 2015, the RN’s alleged fake jobs system allegedly saw workers being paid and listed as assistants while carrying out unrelated roles within the National Front party system.

Prosecutors claim the assistants worked exclusively for the party outside parliament under a “system of fraud managed by successive leaders” that saw almost €7 million in EU funds misappropriated.

**Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/30/france-marine-le-pen-faces-court-fake-jobs-scandal/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/30/france-marine-le-pen-faces-court-fake-jobs-scandal/)

> Many of the RN “assistants” were allegedly incapable of describing their day-to-day work and some never met their supposed MEP boss or set foot in the parliament building.

> “She knows that what we are accused of is having a different understanding, as a French party, of what an assistant role is, compared with the European Parliament’s understanding,”

this is hilarious, the arrogance is beyond