French far-right politician Le Pen to stand trial over alleged misuse of EU funds

Paris: The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday that far-right politician Marine Le Pen will stand trial for alleged embezzlement of EU funds to fund her National Rally party’s activities.

The former presidential candidate will be in a court in March along with 26 other National Rally (RN) party members over the embezzling allegations.

They are accused of using EU parliamentary funds to pay for assistants who worked for the National Rally party, formerly called the National Front.

Le Pen, a member of European Parliament from 2004-2017, and her party have denied the claims.

EU deputies are allocated funds to cover expenses, but are not meant to use them for party expenses.

As the head of RN until 2021, Le Pen ran against Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.