Appeal trial against FN auxiliaries: the public prosecutor’s office announces that it will demand confirmation of guilt and unfitness

“We are going to ask you to confirm the criminal liability of the first instance in broad terms, and sanctions will of course be required if you do not qualify”the two representatives of the Public Prosecution Service warned at the start of their indictment during the appeal trial in Paris in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the National Front (FN), now National Rally (RN), Tuesday, February 3.

Their arraignment, expected to last nearly six hours, began at 1 p.m. before the court of appeal in Paris. Marine Le Pen, who is running for the 2027 presidential elections, was sentenced at first instance to four years in prison, two of which are conditional, a fine of 100,000 euros and five years of exclusion with immediate execution.

The two representatives of the Public Prosecution Service deplored the fact that the defendants, including Marine Le Pen, had “used the strategy of delegitimization of opposing powers, and here of justice, the aim of which would be to prevent the accession of a party leader to the highest positions of the executive power”. “It is inaccurate to suggest that justice could oppose the will of the sovereign people. It forgets that the judge is the guardian of the law, and that he merely applies it.”the two Advocates General added at the beginning of their complaint, after eleven days of debate before the Court of Appeal in Paris, that as “quieter” then in the first instance.

Justice accuses Marine Le Pen, the National Rally and ten other executives of paying employees of the party, which was then in financial difficulties due to poor election results, with money from the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016. Of the 25 convicted at first instance last year, half appealed.

Only a possible exclusion sentence of less than two years and the absence of a conviction for wearing an electronic bracelet, which is considered incompatible with the ability to campaign, would prevent M.^me Le Pen to glimpse a political future. The court of appeal will make a ruling “by summer”.