Overview
- Before the Paris Court of Appeal, Bruno Gollnisch acknowledged a mutualised pool of parliamentary assistants centralized at Montretout but rejected the term "system" as criminalizing.
- Gollnisch said he placed his EU‑funded aides at the party secretariat to "use the allowance efficiently," describing their status as a form of detachment rather than direct subordination to him.
- Presiding judge Michèle Agi questioned the true chain of command, likening assistants to "vases communicants" and "gyrovagues" moving between FN MEPs without clear supervision.
- Case examples cited in court included Yann Le Pen receiving a bonus authorized by Marine Le Pen, Guillaume Lhuillier listed internally as Jean‑Marie Le Pen’s chief of staff, and Micheline Bruna serving as his personal assistant.
- The appeal reexamines first‑instance findings that the RN diverted public funds from 2004 to 2016, which led to convictions of the party and senior figures, including Gollnisch’s three‑year sentence with one year under electronic monitoring, a €50,000 fine, and five years of ineligibility.