PARIS (AP) — A court in France found Marine Le Pen guilty on Monday in a case of embezzlement and imposed a ban on her running for public office for five years, a major blow to the presidential aspirations of the far-right leader and a seismic event in French politics.
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Le Pen, who reached the presidential runoff against Emmanuel Macron in 2022, appeared as one of the main favorites for the 2027 elections. In 2017, she also lost in the second round against the current French president.
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Why was Marine Le Pen convicted?
Le Pen was not present to hear the head judge deliver the sentence. By then, she had already left the courtroom when the judge first indicated that the 56-year-old woman would be disqualified from holding office.
"Incredible," Le Pen whispered at one point. Then she abruptly left without warning, picking up her purse and walking out, her heels echoing on the wooden floor, leaving many in the courtroom incredulous, turning their heads towards the door.
The judge also issued guilty verdicts for eight other current or former members of her party who, like her, have previously served as elected members of the European Parliament.
Le Pen and the other accused could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison. They have the option to appeal, which would result in a new trial.
The accusation against Le Pen, along with 24 other members of her party the National Rally, is related to allegedly having redirected funds allocated to European Parliament assistants to pay employees who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016. This action would have violated the rules of the group of 27 countries. Both Le Pen and the other accused deny having engaged in any irregularities.
In the trial that lasted for nine weeks at the end of 2024, she argued that the disqualification “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate” and would also take away rights from her supporters.
“There are 11 million citizens who cast their vote for the movement that I lead. Therefore, tomorrow, it is possible that millions of French people will be left without their candidate in the electoral race,” he told the judges.
Who could replace Le Pen as the far-right candidate?
If Le Pen fails to be a candidate in 2027, her most logical successor would be Jordan Bardella, who took over the party leadership in 2021. “She is being unjustly condemned” and that the French democracy “is being executed,” Bardella wrote on the social network X.
In another comment on the same network, Bardella wrote hours later, “through our popular and peaceful mobilization, let’s show them that the will of the people is stronger.”
Le Pen denied the accusations of leading “a system” designed to embezzle funds from the EU parliament in order to benefit her party, which she headed from 2011 to 2021.
The hearings revealed that a portion of EU funds was allocated to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard, who had previously served as her father’s bodyguard, as well as to finance her personal assistant.