The French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) wrote Sunday that the president of the far-right French party Front National (FN), Marine Le Pen, is "currently subject of a tax audit". Le Pen denounced it as a form of "persecution". In addition, the weekly claims that the European Parliament "has just re-evaluated upwards the damage" suffered by the fictitious uses of parliamentary assistants working for MEPs belonging to FN to "nearly 7 million euros".
Reacting on Twitter, Le Pen wrote: "The JDD announces that I’m the target of a tax audit?! First news! But it missed the persecution". "It wouldn’t surprise me too much" that there is a tax audit, she said later on channel France 3.
Asked by AFP, the French Ministry of Public Accounts didn’t comment on the case, which concerns "tax secrecy".
Seventeen MEPs or former MEPs, including Marine Le Pen and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, are included in the investigation, which began in 2015 and covers at least 40 assistants.
The investigation concerns salaries paid from European funds to assistants of elected MEPs in the European Parliament who may have been assigned to other tasks.
The Brussels Times
