French far-right's Marine Le Pen goes on trial over fake EU jobs

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00:00and a story that has the potential to derail the political ambitions of Marine Le Pen.

00:06The French far-right leader and two dozen others are on trial today,

00:10accused of embezzling European Parliament funds.

00:15They have denied violating the rules.

00:17With me now is Shirley Sitbon.

00:19She's at the Paris courthouse covering this trial for us today.

00:23Shirley, first of all, what are the charges against Le Pen and the other 26 here?

00:30Well, embezzling public funds, European funds.

00:33It all goes back to 2004, when the National Front at the time

00:38had this great electoral success in the European Parliament.

00:42They had several MEPs and they had struggles in France here nationally

00:47because they didn't have enough money.

00:48They were growing more popular, but they didn't have the necessary funds to work

00:53and they wanted to stay in the green.

00:54So they found the scheme of using the funds they were allowed to use

00:59in the European Parliament, but instead of using them to pay for

01:03your parliamentary assistance, well, they used these people in Paris

01:08to do work for the party, to be a bodyguard for the party's leader at the time,

01:15to be personal assistants, to be a graphic designer.

01:18And today in court, we saw these people coming to the witness stand

01:23and being told what the charges are.

01:25And this gives us a bit of a scope of what will happen in the next two months

01:30and basically what they face, the charges they face.

01:32Well, it goes from fines, also imprisonment.

01:37And what's really important for the party and for Marine Le Pen

01:39is the fact that they may lose their possibility to run for elections.

01:44They may be ineligible.

01:46And that, of course, is crucial.

01:47So we're waiting.

01:48And now the trial has started.

01:50We've seen all these top players of the national rally now

01:54coming to the stand and hearing their charges.

01:57And Shirley, we were just looking at images of Marine Le Pen herself.

02:01She's been in court today.

02:03How do you think she came across?

02:07Well, she came straight to the press saying that she was pleased to have

02:12two months to explain her party's position and to prove to everyone

02:16they did not embezzle money, that they did not violate European rules,

02:21that, according to them, European MEPs, well, they're allowed to use the funds

02:28that are allocated to them the way that they see fit.

02:31They can use them in France as well.

02:33And we actually heard that in court today.

02:36The first defense lawyer started to unravel this European legislation,

02:41saying, well, what does this all mean, a public interest in Europe?

02:44Well, the party is thinking about the greater good of the population.

02:48Basically, it has not violated rules.

02:50They're trying to get into those rules and saying that they can be interpreted

02:54in various ways.

02:55That's what they're trying to do.

02:57That's what they will try to do.

02:58Of course, the European Parliament spokespeople who are here have explained

03:03to us very clearly, and that was clear throughout the investigation into this,

03:08that that is not the rule.

03:09The rule is using European funds for the European Parliament for a very

03:14specific framework within the mandate of the European Parliament.

03:18That's going to be the debate here.

03:20And you touched on this a bit earlier, Shirley, but we know this story

03:24is attracting significant attention in the French media, but also

03:28internationally.

03:28Just spell out for us why the trial is such a big deal.

03:34Well, yes, as Marine Le Pen's electoral future is on the line here,

03:40because if she is declared guilty, if she does not convince the

03:43presiding judges and the judges that she is guilty, that she acted in good

03:48faith, well, she may lose the possibility to run in the next election,

03:52maybe in 2027, maybe earlier, as she perhaps would like.

03:56This means that everything can change on the French political scene.

04:00But the national rally is trying to use this trial to turn it over from an

04:05accusation and negative images of all this wrongdoing, allegedly, well,

04:10basically to say that they're persecuted, they're harassed, that this

04:12is a political trial.

04:14That's what they're going to attempt to do here in court.

04:16But basically, French politics are shaken here in court.

04:20It's the future of the national rally, the future of the French leaders,

04:25and also maybe a shift at the top of this party.

04:28Because behind Marine Le Pen, there's Jordan Bardella, the party head,

04:33who's not, you know, the big man of the party.

04:35She is the one who decides everything.

04:37But if she is not elected anymore, well, maybe he will step up.

04:42So a lot is being played out here.

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