French Court bans far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for office
A French court has found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of misusing EU funds to pay staff from her National Rally party between 2004 and 2016 and followed up the verdict on Friday with a sentence barring her from running for office, dashing her political ambitions of standing in the next presidential race.
Issued on: 31/03/2025
By:FRANCE 24
Video by:Shirli SITBON
03:47President of the parliamentary group of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Marine Le Pen arrives at the Paris courthouse for her trial verdict on March 31, 2025. © Alain Jocard, AFP
A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her from running for office.
Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.
The biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 -- a scenario she described as a “political death.”
The Constitutional Council ruled Friday, in a separate case, that imposing the punishment immediately was constitutional.
Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.
A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her from running for office.
Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.
The biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 -- a scenario she described as a “political death.”
The Constitutional Council ruled Friday, in a separate case, that imposing the punishment immediately was constitutional.
Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.
'Marine Le Pen has indeed been condemned'
03:17© France 24
During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.
“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.
With Le Pen unable to run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.
Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021.
She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some highly political work related to the party, which was called the National Front at the time.
While testifying, Le Pen told the court: “I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move.”
Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.
Prosecutors asked the court to declare Le Pen guilty, requesting a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility.
Le Pen said she felt they were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president.
Prosecutors also requested a guilty verdict for all the other co-defendants, including various sentences of up to one year in prison and a €2 million ($2.2 million) fine for the party.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
LIVE: Marine Le Pen sentenced to ineligibility
Published: 31/03/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Irène SULMONT
Published: 31/03/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Irène SULMONT
Marine Le Pen arrives with her lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut at the Paris courthouse for the verdict of her trial on suspicions of embezzlement of European public funds, on March 31, 2025. © Alain Jocarda, AFP
In the Paris court, Marine Le Pen and the elected officials tried in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the National Front were sentenced to ineligibility. Follow our live stream.
SUMMARY
The Paris criminal court began to hand down its judgment at 10 a.m.
Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution.
Marine Le Pen and eight MEPs were found guilty of embezzlement of public funds.
The twelve assistants tried alongside them were also found guilty of receiving stolen goods.
The prosecution has requested a sentence of five years of ineligibility with provisional execution in addition to five years in prison, two of which will be suspended, as well as a fine of 300,000 euros.
The finalist in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections as well as 24 other defendants are accused of having paid with European Parliament funds the parliamentary assistants of MEPs of the far-right party for an estimated damage of more than 3.2 million euros.
Marine Le Pen and the 24 other defendants have always disputed this embezzlement of public money.
Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution.
In the Paris court, Marine Le Pen and the elected officials tried in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the National Front were sentenced to ineligibility. Follow our live stream.
SUMMARY
The Paris criminal court began to hand down its judgment at 10 a.m.
Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution.
Marine Le Pen and eight MEPs were found guilty of embezzlement of public funds.
The twelve assistants tried alongside them were also found guilty of receiving stolen goods.
The prosecution has requested a sentence of five years of ineligibility with provisional execution in addition to five years in prison, two of which will be suspended, as well as a fine of 300,000 euros.
The finalist in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections as well as 24 other defendants are accused of having paid with European Parliament funds the parliamentary assistants of MEPs of the far-right party for an estimated damage of more than 3.2 million euros.
Marine Le Pen and the 24 other defendants have always disputed this embezzlement of public money.
Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution.
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