Marine Le
Pen barred from running for French president
The sentence
was delivered after the French far-right icon was found guilty of embezzling
European Parliament funds.
March 31,
2025 11:14 am CET
By Victor
Goury-Laffont
PARIS —
Marine Le Pen’s plans to run for the French presidency in 2027 were dealt a
likely fatal blow Monday after she was found guilty of embezzling European
Parliament funds and deemed ineligible to stand in elections for the next five
years.
Given
surging support for her far-right National Rally party, 2027 had widely been
seen as a potential breakthrough moment for her populist anti-migration agenda,
and several polls put her as a strong contender to succeed Emmanuel Macron in
the Elysée Palace.
The decision
would appear to open the door for Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president
and Le Pen’s heir-apparent, to become the flag-bearer for the far right and run
for the presidency.
Le Pen and
24 other codefendants were accused of illicitly siphoning European Parliament
funds to pay for party employees who seldom or never dealt with affairs in
Brussels or Strasbourg. The court estimated that the accused had over 12 years
embezzled more than €4 million, €474,000 of which Le Pen was held personally
responsible for as an MEP.
All but one
of them, an accountant, were found guilty and handed a mix of fines,
ineligibility bans and suspended prison sentences. The National Rally party was
also found guilty and handed a €2 million fine, though that can be reduced by
€1 million if it does not repeat the crime.
The harshest
punishment was reserved for Le Pen, as she was convicted of criminal activity
both as a former MEP and then running it as party’s ex-president.
Prosecutors
took the extraordinary step of asking the three-judge panel presiding over the
case to immediately enact Le Pen’s ban on running for office rather than wait
until the appeals process has concluded, which is usually the norm in France.
The judges
agreed, citing the gravity of Le Pen’s crime. They also fined her €100,000 and
sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended — but those
penalties could be delayed by a possible appeal.
“Today, it’s
not just Marine Le Pen who is unfairly condemned: It’s French democracy that is
being executed,” said Bardella.
Bardella and
other far-right figures in France and across Europe were quick to condemn the
verdict. Some, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, even weighed in
before Le Pen’s sentence was announced. The Kremlin deplored a “violation of
democratic norms” and Italy’s far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini
condemned the verdict as a “a bad film” and a “declaration of war by Brussels.”
The
defendants repeatedly professed their innocence over the course of the
four-month-long trial, but the prosecution presented damning evidence against
them — including text messages from one parliamentary assistant who, months
after being hired, asked to be introduced to the MEP he was supposedly working
for.
Le Pen and
the National Rally knew the trial would be a thorn in their side but were
relatively sanguine about the process. And the allegations, for now, have done
little to affect either Le Pen or the National Rally’s popularity.
The
defendants were, however, taken aback when prosecutors in November asked that
immediate ineligibility bans of various lengths be handed to all of the
defendants.
If Le Pen is
unable to successfully appeal the verdict before the next presidential
election, the National Rally is likely to look to Bardella, the party’s loyal
29-year-old president, to step in.
Indeed, in a
possible prediction of her own departure from the scene, she told the BFMTV
network just before the sentence that Bardella had “the capacity to be
president of the Republic.”
And while
the future of populist nationalism in France has rarely looked brighter than it
does today, Bardella’s lack of experience during a high-profile presidential
campaign has fueled skepticism — even within his own ranks — about whether he
is up to the task.
This story
is being updated.
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