PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions.
Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said she remained confident as “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and vowed to present the judges with “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments.″
Le Pen and other National Rally members casually greeted each other before sitting down in the first three rows of the packed courtroom.
The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the next presidential election takes place in 2027.
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According to the press, their argument is going to be “yes we did attribute EU funds to pay the salaries of people who weren’t helping eu deputies, but we are free to assign whatever tasks to whoever in the party and that means it was very cool and very legal, actually”.