Already weakened by his comments on the suicide of farmers, Julien Odoul finds himself this time at the heart of a new potentially explosive affair. According to Liberation, the head of the RN list in Bourgogne Franche-Comté in the regional elections, would be the subject of a report to the prosecutor of the Republic of Dijon after accusations of fictitious employment. Several RN advisers in Bourgogne Franche-Comté suspect the far-right candidate of having employed a fictitious assistant for months. Seven advisers or former advisers of the National Rally in the region would even say they are ready to testify against the elected official, underlines the daily which had access to an internal mail.
Recruited in July 2020, the assistant in question would be a young woman of 25, former Miss Elegance Burgundy, now a freelance journalist at Current Values, according to her LinkedIn profile.
"I worked, I was in the offices, in the shadows, I have lots of pay slips that attest to it and I have files full of my USB key", she explained to the newspaper.
The young woman confirmed having made the journey every day (yet 300 km round trip) separating her home in the southwest of Montceau-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire) from the headquarters of the Burgundy Franche Comté regional council. has Dijon.
When questioned, several sources within the RN claim to have never seen her more than three times in the corridors.
An arrival in the team announced two months after hiring
Similarly, if the assistant would have been recruited on July 7, 2020 by the RN office, Julien Odoul would not have announced his arrival until two months later, in a simple email specifying that the young woman had to "bring her skills" to the 'team "in particular in writing for [the] last months of the mandate".
Here again, several regional advisers assured that they had never received an email from the young woman, nor observed the reality of her work.
Contacted, Julien Odoul did not respond to the newspaper's requests.
As a reminder, the far-right candidate is suspected of having himself occupied a fictitious post in 2015 when he was the assistant to FN MEP Mylène Troszczynski and was indicted in April 2019 in connection with the case of the assistants of the far-right party in the European Parliament.
"Smelly balls", according to Marine Le Pen
Friday, all the candidates in the regional elections in Burgundy Franche-Comté condemned comments, also reported by Liberation, of the RN candidate ironically on the suicide of farmers.
"Is the rope French?"
“Asked under laughter the latter, during a meeting of the group of his party at the regional council in December 2019, according to a recording extract released by the newspaper.
He was responding to another outgoing RN regional advisor, Jacques Ricciardetti, who wondered if the farmer found hanged had "left a mark".
Read also Who is Julien Odoul, the elected RN who attacked a veiled mother?
Faced with the controversy, the president of RN Marine Le Pen repeated this Sunday her support for the candidate, denouncing "stink balls (...) launched fifteen days before the elections". “If you've read the transcript, you can't help but notice (that he) isn't talking about farmer suicide at all. (…) He talks about the wolf and the defenders of the wolf, he does not talk about farmers at all ”, defended the RN presidential candidate at the RTL-Le Figaro-LCI Grand Jury. And to add: “I understand well what is the interest of our adversaries (…). In a mature democracy, we fight each other with ideas. We do not fight with this type of manipulation. "
