In the appeal trial of the Front National's European parliamentary assistants, Fernand Le Rachinel, the first defendant questioned, claimed he did not know the contracts were illegal. The 83-year-old former MEP explained that his assistants did work, but not in the proper frameworks. He acknowledged that Jean-Marie Le Pen made the recruitment decisions.
The appeal trial of the Front National's (FN) European parliamentary assistants entered its third day with the questioning of Fernand Le Rachinel, the party's historic printer and former political bureau member until 2008. A close friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 83-year-old was elected to the European Parliament twice: from 1994 to 1999, and then from 2004 to 2009. It is this latter period that led to his 2025 first-instance conviction of two years' suspended prison, a 15,000 euro fine, and three years' ineligibility.
Arriving in Strasbourg in November 1994 to replace Chantal Simonot, Le Rachinel signed a parliamentary assistance contract on November 1 with Micheline Bruna, Jean-Marie Le Pen's personal secretary in Montretout, Hauts-de-Seine. A second equally fictitious contract was signed in January 2005 with Thierry Légier, Le Pen's bodyguard. 'They did not work for me; it was Jean-Marie Le Pen who decided. I did not intervene in recruitments,' he admitted during his interrogation.
Despite his advanced age and apparent deafness, Le Rachinel appeared well-dressed. His lawyer described him as 'talkative,' but he responded laconically. He insisted that his assistants 'really worked, but not in the right boxes,' and he did not see the problem. The trial involves a total of 12 defendants.