Fabrice Leggeri, formerly director of Frontex, is now an MEP with the National Rally.
PARIS — French far-right leaders jumped to the defense of National Rally MEP Fabrice Leggeri over accusations that he was complicit in crimes against humanity while head of the EU’s border agency, Frontex.
Party leader Jordan Bardella said on X that Leggeri was the victim of “harassment by far-left judicial organizations,” after newswire AFP reported that the Paris Court of Appeal could open a probe following a complaint lodged by human rights groups.
Human rights organizations Ligue des Droits de l’Homme and Utopia 56 announced in 2024 that they were taking legal action against Leggeri for having “opted for a policy aimed at preventing migrants from entering the EU at any cost — including, in particular, the loss of human lives” during his tenure at the head of Frontex from 2015 to 2022.
National Rally’s Marine Le Pen also posted on X, accusing the organizations of seeking to “criminalize any control over migration policies, even though this is what the people of Europe are calling for.”
Leggeri, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from POLITICO, was elected to the European Parliament with the National Rally in 2024 and now sits with the far-right Patriots group.
He stepped down from his role at Frontex in 2022 after an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud agency, OLAF, uncovered wrongdoing at the agency — including illegal pushbacks of migrants along EU shores in the Aegean Sea, at Greece’s frontier with Turkey.