Marine Le Pen's Campaign Lambasts EU's Fraud Probe as 'Political Manipulation'

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - Thierry Mariani, a foreign affairs expert on French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's team, has dismissed accusations of embezzlement against her by the European anti-fraud office as an attempt to shore up Emmanuel Macron’s re-election bid days before the voting.

Le Pen and her associates from the National Rally party are being investigated for allegedly misusing around 600,000 euros ($648,000) in public funds during their time as members of the European Parliament. Paris prosecutors said they were "analysing it." Le Pen rejected the claims as foul play by the European Union as she heads into a tight race against centrist Macron in the runoff on Sunday.

"It is a typical political manipulation, a few days before the second round of the French presidential election, by [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen, in full agreement with her good friend Macron", Mariani told Sputnik.

A similar investigation also marred Le Pen’s presidential campaign in 2016-2017. Mariani insisted that accusations underlying the latest embezzlement scandal were "strictly nothing new." The election bid of Francois Fillon, Macron’s other close rival and frontrunner in the 2017 election, was likewise wrecked by a fraud probe.

"An answer has been given to the EU in due time, years ago, but actually, the European nomenclature does not want the accusation to reach the courts of justice. They prefer to keep it at hand, unresolved, to be able to regularly attack Marine Le Pen", he argued.

Electoral documents for the upcoming second round of 2017 French presidential election are displayed as registered voters will receive an envelope containing the declarations of faith of each candidate, Emmanuel Macron (R) and Marine Le Pen (L), along with the two ballot papers for the May 7 second round of the French presidential election, in Nice, France, May 3, 2017

© REUTERS / Eric Gaillard

Mariani suggested that the EU fraud agency’s report, leaked by the French investigative website Mediapart over the weekend, was Macron’s payback for having to explain his administration's lavish spending on foreign consultancy firms, such as US giant McKinsey.

"We perceive it as a counter-attack by Macron, who is personally very annoyed by the McKinsey scandal. Marine Le Pen has already answered that there was strictly nothing new and that it was a purely political manipulation by the European services of Ursula von der Leyen and of president Macron", Mariani said.