A few days after the ballotage in France, a new EU accusation against Marine Le Pen for embezzlement comes to light

Six days after ballotage in France, a new investigation by the European anti-fraud agency against Marine Le Pen entangles the campaign of the far-right leader, as happened in the 2017 elections, and as then her response is to denounce a montage and criticize the bias of the community institutions.

“I am very used to the traps of the European Union a few days before the second round and I think that the French are not fooled,” Le Pen said Monday while campaigning in the town of Saint Pierre en Auge, in Normandy, when asked about that matter.

He “completely” denied the allegations in the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) that had leaked the online information site Médiapart on Sunday. A report transmitted to the French Justice in mid-March for the possible opening of proceedings against the candidate who will seek to reach the Elysee next Sunday in front of Emmanuel Macron.

OLAF personally claims 137,000 euros from her which it considers that she embezzled when she was a Member of the European Parliament because she dedicated them to French national policy purposes that did not correspond to those of her position in the European Chamber, for which they were attributed.

He also demands the reimbursement of other amounts (in total 617,000 euros) to three other former MEPs from his party, the National Group (RN): his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen; his former partner, Louis Alliot, and the one who was vice-president of the movement, Bruno Gollnisch.

Among other things, they are reproached that they used this money to make donations to associations run by people close to RN or directly to party members, but also to buy bottles of wine and champagne that cost thousands of euros that are not justified by acts associated with the exercise of the positions of MEPs.

Marine Le Pen and Alliot complained that, despite being the first interested parties, they did not have access to the dossier as Médiapart did, a medium to which their team does not tire of pointing out that it is very ideologically marked on the left.

It was precisely Médiapart more than five years ago that it revealed that OLAF was demanding from the leader of the French far right 339,000 euros of public funds that the European Parliament had allocated to it to pay parliamentary assistants, a matter that was pursuing it during the 2017 presidential campaign.

And that earned him at the beginning of 2018 an accusation of embezzlement of funds on suspicion that he paid with those funds to his personal secretary and his bodyguard.

On the other hand, Marine Le Pen took advantage of a question to radio France Bleu to emphasize that there are “a thousand differences” between her and her father in the political arena.

She stressed that while her father created and was in charge of “a movement of response, of protest”, the National Front, she nevertheless leads “a movement of government” and “of proposal”.

She also emphasized that she, unlike her father, who was an angry critic of Charles de Gaulle's political work, is a defender of the current Fifth Republic regime that created this historical figure.

In the same vein of affirming himself as a figure open to the search for consensus and away from extremism, he said that if he wins the elections, he will form “a government of national union” which will include people “who will come from the left and the right”.

Although the only name he wanted to give was who would be his Minister of Justice, Jean-Pierre Garraud MEP, he said that he could include people from the profile of former socialist economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, who left François Hollande's executive in August 2014 for defending industrial protectionism.

Polls released this Monday point to an increase in Emmanuel Macron's advantage over Marine Le Pen.

According to the Ipsos poll, if the second round was held now, the French president would win with 56% of the vote, compared to 44% of his far-right opponent. According to Ifop, the result would be 54.5% for the first (one point higher than on Friday) and 45.5% for the second (one point less).

(With information from EFE)

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