Le Pen family can’t dodge repayment order over father’s misused funds 

AMSTERDAM (CN) — Marine Le Pen and the other daughters of France’s far-right icon Jean-Marie Le Pen must pay a 300,000-euro recovery order (about $350,000) over misused parliamentary funds, the European Union’s General Court confirmed Wednesday.

The ruling ends a yearslong dispute that began in 2016, when the European Anti-Fraud Office opened an investigation into the senior Le Pen’s expense claims during his time as a member of the European Parliament. He served in the role between 1984 and 2019, with a brief interruption from 2003 to 2004.

The investigation centered on Le Pen’s use of a flat-rate monthly office allowance, known in EU terms as “budget line 400.” Each member of parliament receives this lump sum to cover rent, equipment and other administrative costs, with no need to provide receipts.

In Le Pen’s case, EU investigators found expenses unrelated to his parliamentary work, including rent for properties tied to his political party and other questionable spending.

The anti-fraud office finalized its report in 2021 and sent it to the European Parliament, which then began recovery proceedings. Le Pen responded to the findings in early 2021, but by January 2024, when the Parliament issued its formal recovery notice, his health had declined.

He died Jan. 7 at age 96, before the case reached the court. His daughters — Marie-Caroline Olivier, Yann Maréchal and the popular leader of his revamped National Rally party, Marine Le Pen — stepped in as his legal heirs.

He launched the National Front in 1972. His antisemitic and xenophobic rhetoric set the foundations for his platform and ultimately contributed to him losing control. His daughter took over in 2011 and renamed the party National Rally, aiming to distance it from her father’s scandals.

The elder Le Pen famously said gas chambers in the Holocaust were a “detail” of history; he was charged with inciting racial hatred and embezzling public funds.

Nonetheless, he built the foundations for a party that has now become mainstream during a political career that spanned decades. It peaked in a run for president against Jacques Chirac in 2002, when Le Pen finished second.

His family challenged the repayment order, arguing that the parliament had denied Le Pen a fair chance to respond to the charges.

The court dismissed their claim.

The judges found the procedure leading to the recovery order complied with legal standards. They said, “the procedure having led the parliament to adopt the recovery decision and to issue the debit note is not contrary to the principles of legal certainty and of the protection of legitimate expectations.” Le Pen was informed of the findings on Jan. 23, 2024, and given two months to submit comments.

The court also dismissed the family’s claim that the process was unfair. They argued that the timing and language of the Parliament’s notice had misled them, and that Le Pen’s declining health had prevented him from responding.

“Neither the recovery decision nor the letter notifying that decision contained a new invitation to submit additional observations,” the judges wrote, rejecting the idea that the family had been assured a decision was still pending.

The court noted that the usual safeguards of a courtroom trial did not apply, since the procedure was administrative rather than judicial. Even so, it concluded that Le Pen had been given a fair chance to respond — both personally and through his legal representatives — during the investigation and afterward.

It also found the Parliament had followed proper procedures. The final decision, the court said, included “a detailed account of the factual and legal context” and addressed the family’s response. At the same time, it emphasized that “no evidence that the appropriations had been used in accordance with the applicable rules had been produced.”

With both arguments rejected, the court ordered the Le Pen family to pay legal costs.

They have since appealed to the European Court of Justice, which will only consider legal questions. Under EU rules, appeals must be filed within two months and ten days of the judgment.

Marine Le Pen has run for president twice, losing both times to Emmanuel Macron. She was convicted in a separate fake jobs scandal in the European Parliament, leading to a ban from running for office for five years. She is appealing the order.