There are 720 lawmakers (Members of European Parliament) representing the 27 EU member states. Out of those, “139 EU lawmakers misused money they receive for assistants and the Parliament has recovered funds on 155 occasions between 2019 and 2022.” So the practice is fairly widespread: 19% of lawmakers did what Marine Le Pen was accused of doing. But to keep her out of the French presidential race, given her enormous popularity and threat to the globalist left, she was blocked from even running, thus trampling the democratic process in France. This is the kind of action that used to be seen in fascist regimes.
“Le Pen not alone: How financial misconduct affects European Parliament,” by Vincenzo Genovese, Euro News, February 4, 2025:
Misuse of funds intended to pay MEPs’ assistants has been fairly widespread in the last years, but few episodes land in court cases.
French far-right politician Marine Le Pen and eight other former members of the European Parliament from her party were found guilty of embezzling EU funds.
But they were not alone and misuse of money earmarked to pay MEP’s assistants is quite common in the Parliament, multiple sources familiar with the Parliament’s internal working have told Euronews.
Each MEP is entitled to a monthly sum earmarked for paying their assistants, which amounts to €30,769 in the current legislature (2024-2029), a slight rise from the previous one.
At least 40% of this allowance is for accredited assistants (APA), those working in the Parliament’s premises in Brussels, Luxembourg or Strasbourg and employed directly by the Parliament…..
….“We don’t know how many MEPs are involved in this practice. The parliament does not make that information public, although we think they should,” Nicholas Aiossa, director at the NGO Transparency International EU, told Euronews.
“Sometimes the cases are discovered through investigative journalism. We have also, over the years, had whistleblowers approaching us to outline allowance misuse schemes as well,” he said.
To gauge how widespread malpractice may be, Aiossa cites a 2023 Follow The Money report which stated that 139 EU lawmakers misused money they receive for assistants and the Parliament has recovered funds on 155 occasions between 2019 and 2022…..
Eddie says
Take down Le Pen.
Block the AFD
Thwart Gert Wilders from being PM
Lock up Tommy Robinson.
And so on and on
Manipulate democracy to fit one narrative
Block the right at any cost.
Ignore what ordinary folk are asking for.
How did it come to this?
Has the time has come to ignore politicians in the West ?
We need a patriots revolution across Europe and especial here in Britain – even though that will cause turmoil and a lot of people will get hurt.
Is there any other way to stop this wanton destruction of everything we are, have been and the future of our children?
This abuse is too great.
Numbers. Millions of us pushing aside this agenda . The time is overdue.
“A ca ira, ca ira ca ira,
Les politicians a la lanterne”
࿗Infidel࿘ says
One more reason why we, the US, have no business defending Europe. We don’t defend Russia, and while they are a dictatorship, even they don’t have 2 sets of rules for two sets of people
Homer Bedloe says
Cut off diplomatic relations with France and tell them they are on their own against the Russians. We don’t need to be defending dictatorships, which is what most of European Governments are now. Only Poland and Hungary understand the principles of freedom.
Daniel Triplett says
Trump should lean on Macron to pardon Le Pen.
Michael Skok says
Can’t Le Pen name someone to replace her?
soda says
Ya I was thinking the same thing-if she really cared for France, she could appoint Eric Zemmour who’s even more patriotic and anti-Islam than she is.
But there are a lot of egos in politics and sometimes they’ll let their country burn rather than let someone else get the glory instead of them for saving it.
Maybe her neice Marion Maréchal who’s also famous and ofc related so that Marine’s fans won’t mind voting for her.
The Left-wing is absolutely psychotic…they can clearly see what Muslims and mass migration has done to their country and are doing nothing about it…what’s worse is that they are blocking right-wing parties who want to fix this problem.
They tried the same in the US and failed…I hope European nations can save themselves, because everything seems to be getting worse, the boats keep coming, the stabbings keep happening…and Muslims keep growing their numbers.
Should the West fail to save itself through voting/legal means, I can see this descending to civil war and while that’s still better than Islamification-it’ll be very messy.
skeptiker says
Mal schauen, wie lange sich diese Demokratieverachter in Brüssel noch halten können. Ich denke, der Widerstand gegen die korrupten Eurokraten wird sich noch verstärken. Ungarn trotzt seit Jahren den Befehlen aus Brüssel und fährt mit seiner Politik gegen den Strom in die richtige Richtung. Der Austritt aus dem IStGH und die enge Partnerschaft mit Israel und den USA lassen einer korrupten Ursula v.d. Leyen ihr dämliches Dauergrinsen vergehen.
Alkflaeda says
Perhaps the rule that convictions block political office should be reviewed, since it appears to furnish a perverse incentive for lawfare, and consideration for the nature of the offence be mandated. Additionally, someone should take a fine-toothed comb to Mr Macron’s accounts.