EGN NEWS DESK
Cultural variations
The National Rally is just not the primary French party to face accusations of misusing MEP funds for home operations.
Earlier this yr, the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem), a part of the coalition supporting French President Emmanuel Macron, was fined €300,000 over related allegations. The European Parliament had initially estimated €1.4 million in losses from the MoDem’s scheme, however later diminished the determine to €293,000, in response to Agence France-Presse.
The most high-profile determine within the MoDem case was François Bayrou, Macron’s first justice minister and one of many first political heavyweights to have thrown his help behind the French president. Bayrou was acquitted resulting from cheap doubt, however a number of different party officers, together with 5 former MEPs, had been fined or given suspended jail sentences.
The National Rally argues that these circumstances stem from cultural variations in Paris and Brussels as to what constitutes being an worker of a political party.
“In French political events, being on payroll is the exception and being a volunteer is the norm, however that’s not the case in different European political cultures,” a prime National Rally official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to candidly focus on the trial with out impacting its consequence, mentioned. “The European Anti-Fraud Office’s method to politics is nonsensical. If an aide is a party member, it raises a purple flag to them,” the official mentioned.
Jordan Bardella, the National Rally’s present president, is notably not on trial. He had not but been elected to the European Parliament or held key party positions through the interval in query.
