Marine Le Pen Found Guilty of Embezzlement and Banned From Next Election

A French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement on Monday and prevented her from running for public office for five years, dealing a crushing blow to the far-right leader's presidential ambitions and causing an earthquake in French politics.

The Paris court found on Monday that Le Pen exploited more than 3 million euros ($3.3 million) in European Parliament funding to pay members of her National Rally (RN) party.

During the sentencing, the top judge declared that the nationalist politician will be barred from running for office for five years, beginning immediately. A four-year prison term was also handed, with two years suspended and the remaining two served via an electronic tag rather than in detention.

Le Pen was also fined 100,000 euros ($108,000), while RN received a 2-million-euro ($2.16 million) punishment.

Le Pen's lawyer said she will appeal the conviction, but she will be disqualified while doing so, perhaps ruling her out of the 2027 presidential election. She was also sentenced to four years in jail, two of which will be served under home arrest and the other two suspended.

Conservative member Laurent Wauquiez, one of Le Pen's political opponents, voiced concern about the ruling, calling it "a very heavy weight on our democracy."

The sentence might preclude Le Pen from running for president for the fourth time in 2027, which she has previously termed as a "political death." Le Pen, the party's most well-known symbol and a tough campaigner, finished second to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party's electoral popularity has increased in recent years.

Only an appeal decision overturning the ban on public office might revive her chances of running. But with the election only two years away, time is running short. There is no assurance that an appeals court would decide more favorably, and appeals in France can take years to resolve.

The result was a crushing setback for Le Pen's National Rally party, previously the National Front.

However, MEP Daniel Freund, who leads the European Parliament's anti-corruption working group, stated that the prosecution against Le Pen was the greatest fraud case in the European Parliament's history.

"The French judiciary shows that the rule of law applies to everyone, regardless of polling numbers," said Mr. Macron.

Marine Le Pen and 24 other party leaders were accused of diverting funds earmarked for European Union parliamentary assistants to pay party personnel between 2004 and 2016, breaking the 27-nation bloc's standards.

The judge found eight other current or former members of her party guilty, including Le Pen, who had previously sat in the European Parliament. In addition, 12 legislative aides and three others were found guilty. Only one defendant was acquitted.  Everyone had denied wrongdoing.

When the judge first ruled Le Pen guilty, she had no instant reaction from the front row of the courtroom. But she became increasingly angry when the decision was presented in greater detail. She shook her head in disbelief as the court stated that Le Pen's party had illegally utilized European monies for its own profit.

"Incredible," she said quietly at one point. She then departed without warning, scooping up her bag and walking out, her heels tapping on the hardwood floor. The abrupt departure left many in the courtroom in disbelief as they turned their heads toward the door.

During the nine-week trial in late 2024, Le Pen claimed that ineligibility "would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchising her followers.

“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent.  So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.