FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
"Identity and Democracy", the former parliamentary group in the European Parliament, has been targeted by the Prosecutor's Office. It is said that over 4 million euros of EU funds were irregularly spent between 2019 and 2024. At the center of the file are two companies linked to Marine Le Pen's circle. A key figure in the former group is the Lega MEP, Marco Zanni.
The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) has officially opened criminal proceedings for suspected fraud against the Union's budget. The investigation concerns the former parliamentary group "Identity and Democracy" (ID), which in the previous legislature united the parties of Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen, respectively the League and the Rassemblement National.
At the heart of the case are the alleged improper spending of over 4.3 million euros. The funds, paid by the European Parliament for the group's political activity between 2019 and 2024, were misused, according to an internal report by Eurochamber. The document was made public in recent days by a number of European media outlets: the daily newspaper Le Monde, the German television program Kontraste, the weekly Die Zeit and the Austrian magazine Falter.
Suspicious contracts and companies close to Le Pen
The dubious expenses would have brought huge profits to two French companies linked to Le Pen's circle: e-Politic, attributed to her former advisor Frédéric Chatillon, and Unanime, linked to Sighild Blanc. According to Brussels inspectors, e-Politic raised 1.7 million euros after a "merely formal" tender, without minimum compliance requirements. Unanime would have received over 1.4 million for subcontracted printing work at a lower price, with a net difference estimated at 260 thousand euros.
In the last legislature, the presidency of the ID group was in the hands of the League. The role of president was held by MEP Marco Zanni, a member of the League and a central figure in the management of the group’s budget. It is not known at the moment whether Zanni is directly involved, but he was certainly formally responsible for the use of funds in the five years under review.
Zanni had defended the group's actions after the first findings of the administrative audit, arguing that all spending had been made in accordance with the rules and expected political freedoms.
From Audit to Judicial Investigation
The decision of the European Public Prosecutor's Office marks a decisive step: from administrative checks carried out by the European Parliament's financial offices, we have moved on to the opening of a judicial file for suspected irregularities in the use of public funds. The European Parliament's internal report had already identified five groups of expenditure not in compliance with the law, judging the use of over 4.3 million euros by the former ID group as distorted. The explanations provided by the group did not convince the parliamentary administration, which therefore referred the case to the European Public Prosecutor's Office for the opening of an investigation.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen remains under pressure at the judicial level: already convicted at first instance in the proceedings on the assistants of European parliamentarians, she is currently ineligible until the summer of 2026, pending the appeal decision. / Adapted from Pamphlet by Domani /
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