Former PM Bayrou returns to court in long-running EU assistants case

Bayrou, who was acquitted at the first trial in 2024, will appear alongside ten former party officials in the decade-old case involving parliamentary assistants to MEPs.

“I am approaching this trial with great composure and confidence,” the 75-year-old told journalists ahead of the hearing.

Prosecutors maintain that around €300,000 was misappropriated between 2005 and 2017 through 11 contracts for parliamentary assistants who were paid by the European Parliament but allegedly worked primarily for the party.

French centrist leader Francois Bayrou charged over public funds misuse, but says he'll stay put

A decade-old EU funds case

At the original trial, judges found that European funds had indeed been improperly used, convicting several former MEPs and party officials.

They received suspended prison sentences of between 10 and 18 months, fines ranging from €10,000 to €50,000 and suspended two-year bans from standing for election. The UDF – MoDem's predecessor – was fined €100,000, while MoDem itself was ordered to pay €300,000.

But the court cleared Bayrou, finding no evidence that he had asked five MEPs to employ parliamentary assistants on a fictitious basis.

Judges said it was “highly likely” that some of the offences had been committed with his authorisation, but concluded that prosecutors had failed to provide evidence proving this.

The court also rejected the argument that MoDem had operated an organised “system” for diverting European Parliament funds.

That finding distinguished the case from the separate prosecution involving Marine Le Pen and the National Front – now the National Rally. Le Pen and other party figures were convicted over the use of European Parliament money to pay staff who were effectively working for the party, with her conviction subsequently upheld on appeal.

Bayrou said his acquittal had brought an end to a “seven-year nightmare” that began with the investigation and forced him to resign as justice minister in June 2017, barely a month after entering the government.

However, an appeal by prosecutors kept the case alive.

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Reputation and legacy at stake

The timing adds another layer to an already difficult period for the veteran centrist. Wednesday marks exactly one year since Bayrou resigned as prime minister after losing a confidence vote in the National Assembly.

Since then, he has faced further political setbacks, including controversy over his handling of the Bétharram school abuse affair and the loss of his position as mayor of Pau in France's southern Gascony region.

Meanwhile, leading MoDem figures including Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and Marc Fesneau are increasingly being viewed as possible successors to the party leader.

Bayrou – who served as a minister under François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac and Emmanuel Macron – has already ruled out a fourth presidential bid in 2027.

That leaves his reputation and political legacy as perhaps the biggest stakes in the appeal.

Bayrou insists he expects the judges to reach the same conclusion as the original court.

“The decision at first instance acquitted me and confirmed in no uncertain terms that the 'system' of which we were accused did not exist,” he said.

A second acquittal could also leave him freer to play the role of centrist kingmaker ahead of the 2027 presidential elections.

Bayrou has called for a single candidate from France's “democratic mainstream” to block the political extremes, while recently floating former European commissioner Thierry Breton as a possible contender and suggesting that former Socialist president François Hollande's ideas have become increasingly compatible with his own.

(with newswires)