France’s Front National on defensive over suspicions of European parliament fraud

France’s far-right Front National (FN) has reacted angrily to threats of a corruption inquiry into its European parliamentary assistants, suspected of falsely claiming to work for its Euro-MPs. One of its MPs has accused European parliament president Martin Schultz of following French Prime Minister Manuel Valls’s orders in asking for the investigation.

Front National leader Marine Le Pen Reuters/Philippe Laurenson

Schulz has asked the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) to open an inquiry into some of the FN’s 20 European parliamentary assistants and written to French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira detailing his suspicions of a “possible fraudulent use of European funds”.

The sums in question could total 7.5 million euros, according toLe Monde newspaper, a figure that has been confirmed by a source at the parliament.

Parliamentary assistants are supposed to work for MEPs, either in Strasbourg and Brussels or in their constituencies.

The FN, which has 23 MEPs, has four assistants at the Eruopean parliament and 16 in the constituencies, according to its official organisation chart.

The employment contracts of 10 of the local assistants were drawn up at the party’s national headquarters and their job descriptions on the chart and on the party’s website are not those detailed in their contracts, the European parliament said.

According to the chart, some do not even work for the MEPs mentioned in their contracts, it pointed out.

Schultz’s complaint raises the possibility that they are being paid by the European parliament to work for the FN.

Olaf may now take several months to decide whether to pursue the inquiry.

"It’s now in the hands Olaf, they will investigate, the EU parliament has simply transmitted information that they had, which is what it’s obliged to do," the head of the EU parliament's press unit, Marjory van den Broeke, told RFI. "Then Olaf may decide, if there is a real case to be made, to hand it over to the national authorities. Europe doesn’t have a European public prosecutor and in that sense can’t do much"

French FN MP Marion Maréchal Le Pen on Tuesday accused Schultz of “following to the letter the orders of Manuel Valls”, who on Sunday said he was scared by the rise of the FN, which opinion polls show in the lead in France’s regional elections, to be held on 22 and 29 March.

It was entirely possible to be a parliamentary assistant and an adviser to party leader Marine Le Pen on “very technical questions”, she told France Info radio.

"It’s not the parliament who put the organisational chart up on internet, it’s the National Front," van den Broeke commented. "It was reported by the French media and that attracted the EU attention. In that sense, there’s no politics in play here."

Marine Le Pen, who is an MEP herself, threatened to launch a suit for slander.

FN vice-president Florian Philippot pooh-poohed the charges on Twitter.

“Basically Schultz is right … Our assistants don’t work for the European Union but against it!” he tweeted.