French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been placed under formal investigation over an alleged European parliament funding scandal.<\/p>\n
The allegations were passed to French investigators who have opened a case.<\/p>\n
The parliament suspects some \u20ac5m (\u00a34m; $5.4m) went to assistants of Ms Le Pen’s National Front (FN) who were not working for MEPs but were actually engaged in FN party work in France.<\/p>\n
The National Front has denied the allegations.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen, 48, has also denied any wrongdoing and has said the case is politically motivated.<\/p>\n
The alleged fraudulent payments – from 2012 onwards – concern her and several other FN MEPs.<\/p>\n
The allegations first arose on 27 April, ahead of the second round of voting in the French presidential election.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen was soundly beaten by Emmanuel Macron, by 66% to 34%. She later won a seat in the French parliament in legislative elections.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen had refused to answer questions on the matter during the campaign but said she would co-operate after the final round of presidential election voting.<\/p>\n
Her lawyer said she had been summoned by magistrates in Paris and “as expected, placed under criminal investigation”.<\/p>\n
The FN has been highly critical of the EU, rejecting its free-market principles and open-border policies.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris says most voters drawn to the FN are already highly suspicious of the EU, and may not see the alleged fraud as a particularly serious matter.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"