My party had no ‘system’ to misuse EU funds, Marine Le Pen tells appeal trial

French far-right leader denies existence of fake jobs ‘system’ in effort to overturn ban on running for president

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has told a Paris appeals court there was no “system” set up by her party to misuse European parliament funds, as she gave evidence in a fresh embezzlement trial that will determine whether she can run in the 2027 presidential election.

“The word ‘system’ bothers me because [it gives] the impression of a manipulation,” Le Pen said on Tuesday, denying she had told members of the European parliament to hire assistants who instead worked for the party headquarters in Paris.

“Never in my life would I ask a member of the [European] parliament to take assistants to work for the Front National,” Le Pen told the court.

Le Pen, 57, who leads the anti-immigration National Rally (RN), formerly called Front National, was considered to be one of the top contenders for next year’s election until she was barred from running for public office last March after being found guilty of an extensive and long-running fake jobs scam at the European parliament.