EU to recover funds from French election candidate Le Pen

The European Parliament said Sunday it will try to recover money owed by Marine Le Pen over fraud allegations as the far-right leader prepares to face President Emmanuel Macron in France's unpredictably close election run-off.

French news platform Mediapart revealed that a report by the EU's anti-fraud body OLAF accused Le Pen and three other former MEPs - including her father Jean-Marie - of misusing European Parliament funds.

The report also alleged that Le Pen personally misappropriated around 137,000 euros ($148,000) of public money from the Strasbourg-based parliament during her time as an MEP between 2004 and 2017.

A source said the European Parliament had referred the case to OLAF after uncovering some of the alleged irregularities.

"In total, we're talking about 617,000 euros wrongfully paid. We will now proceed with recovery (of the money) from the interested parties in the coming weeks," the source added.

OLAF's investigation has been open since 2016 and Le Pen was questioned by post in March 2021, her lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut told AFP.

Le Pen has faced another investigation since 2017 over suspicions of employing fictional party assistants in the European Parliament.

The impending action against the National Rally leader comes as polls give her a strong chance of beating Macron in the second round of France's presidential election on April 24.