Ms Le Pen, 53, is a French lawyer and politician who is currently challenging Emanuel Macron in the second round of the 2022 French presidential election. However, opinion polls suggest Macron, who has been president of France since 2017, is leading in the second round. On Sunday, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it was considering a report it received from the EU anti-fraud service OLAF on March 11th. OLAF’s report claimed that Ms. Lepen had embezzled 140,000 euros in public money with members of the National Rally party, diverting a total of 617,000 euros, the research website Mediapart wrote on Saturday. Image: A screen showing French President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen at election headquarters in Paris Ms Lepen and her colleagues are not being accused of direct profits, but of claiming EU funding for staff and events. Her office was not immediately accessible for comment. Commenting on the reports, the President of the National Rally Jordan Bardella stated on Europe 1 radio: “The French will not be fooled by the efforts of the European Union and the European institutions (…) to interfere in the presidential campaign and harm Marin Le Pen” . He said his party had filed two legal complaints against OLAF and would file a third in response to the report. Ms Lepen’s lawyer, Rodolphe Boselut, told BFM TV that his client had denied the allegations, adding that neither he nor Lepen had seen the OLAF report. Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 6:44 Macron vs. Le Pen – What is different about this French election? Ms Lepen has been under investigation since 2017 as part of an investigation into alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay for parliamentary assistants. The pro-European Union centrist Macron won the presidency in 2017 after easily defeating Le Pen as voters rallied behind him in the second round to keep her far-right party out of power. Last Sunday’s initial vote created the same battle for the second round, although the current French president faces a much tougher challenge with both sides desperate to flirt with those who backed far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melanson. third in the first round on April 10. with about 22% of the vote.
