Appeal court seeks suspended two-year sentence for MoDem leader François Bayrou
A French appeals court has requested a two-year suspended prison term and a three-year suspended ineligibility for François Bayrou over the MoDem assistants scandal.
During the appellate hearing on the MoDem assistants affair, prosecutors urged the court to hand down a two-year suspended prison term to François Bayrou, the head of the centrist MoDem party. They additionally requested a three-year suspended ban on holding public office. Bayrou had been cleared of wrongdoing in the first-instance trial.
The prosecution’s five-hour argument emphasized that Bayrou must have known about the arrangement whereby assistants were financed by the European Parliament but performed duties solely for MoDem. The case centers on alleged misuse of EU-funded staff positions for partisan purposes. No final verdict has been issued yet.
Why it matters
The ruling could set a precedent for how EU-funded staff positions are scrutinized in national politics.
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