Marine Le Pen spent more than ten hours at the stand on Wednesday, for a second consecutive day of questioning before a Paris court, as part of a crucial appeal trial that will determine whether she can run in next year’s presidential election.
As on the previous day, she repeatedly defended her position and said she “formally” contests the existence of any generalised fraudulent system set up by the party to siphon EU funds between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors accuse Le Pen and ten other defendants of employing parliamentary assistants who were paid with EU money even though their actual work primarily benefited the French National Front party (renamed the National Rally in 2018).
