The RN spokesman during the 2022 presidential election would have accumulated his function with that of parliamentary assistant-Liberation
After the leader and the presidentthe spokesperson’s turn. During the 2022 presidential campaign in France, the spokesman for the National Rally (RN) Andréa Kotarac has accumulated functions in the party and his post as a MEP assistant without requesting authorization from the European Parliament, said sources within the institution, confirming information from information Mediapart.
The rules of the European Parliament (PE), however, provide an authorization procedure for the participation of a parliamentary assistant in an electoral campaign, « Strictly personal » and in « Outside working hours ». After Mediapartfrom November 2021 to December 2022, André Kotarac was both assistant of the MEP Hervé Juvin And spokesperson for Marine Le Pen then the party.
According to a source in the European Parliament, only four days of leave were filed during the in-between-tours of the French presidential election, and not a broader authorization request to combine these functions.
Mediapart claims that the parliamentary contract of Andréa Kotarac corresponded to a « Part -time three -quarter time » with MEP Hervé Juvin. The newspaper assesses the remuneration of such a position at 3,750 euros gross per month. A source at PE highlights the difficulty of combining this function with that, time-consuming, spokespersons during a presidential election.
Contacted, the European Parliament did not want to comment on « Individual cases ». But according to his press service, « It is useful to recall that according to the rules applicable within the European institutions, the administration of the Parliament is held, when it receives serious indications according to which funds have been unduly paid, to carry out a financial audit of the case in question, to request clarification from the deputy concerned and to recover the money unduly received if no evidence of compliant expenses is provided ».
« This is not an investigation and this does not replace any judicial procedure or investigation »specifies the institution. The RN had not reacted immediately.
Mediapart Published this article while Marine Le Pen and the RN called in the case of European parliamentary assistants. At first instance, Marine Le Pen was sentenced on March 31 to five years of immediate ineligibility and four years in prison, including two farm developed under bracelet, the court having estimated that it was at « heart » of the system of embezzlement of public funds set up to pay party employees with the money from the European Parliament, up to 4 million euros, between 2004 and 2016.
The overwhelming majority of defendants had proclaimed their innocence in this case. The appeal trial is provided for in the first half of 2026 with a decision in the summer of 2026.
