France’s Marine Le Pen, leading right-wing politician, found guilty of embezzlement, barred from elections

Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of the ascendant far-right political movement in France, was hit with a non-custodial prison sentence and barred from running in elections for five years on Monday as a court found her guilty of embezzling European Union funds to pay members of her National Rally party’s staff. In handing down the sentence, the judge said the public office ban would take effect immediately and Le Pen would not be able to appeal, which means she will not be able to run for the French presidency in 2027.

“The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted… was a candidate in the presidential election,” judge Benedicte de Perthuis, was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

De Perthuis also sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison, but said that part of her sentence would be served with her wearing an electronic tag, not in prison, and that two years of the sentence would be suspended. He also fined her more than $100,000. Both the fine and the prison sentence can be appealed, and Le Pen said Monday that she would do so.

Recent polling has shown Le Pen likely would have won at least a first round in France’s next national election, though it is much less clear how she would have fared in a second round against a more moderate candidate. 

Far-right political figures across Europe — including the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders and Italy’s Matteo Salvini — condemned the verdict Monday.

In Russia, meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed Le Pen’s sentencing was evidence of European nations “going down the path of trampling over democratic norms.” 

“Of course, we do not want to interfere in France’s internal affairs, we have never done so, and this is France’s internal affair,” said Peskov, “but in general, our observations of European capitals show that they are not at all reluctant to go beyond democracy during the political process.”

Le Pen, 56, garnered 41% of the ballots in the last French presidential election in 2022 — beaten decisively by current President Emmanuel Macron — and she has made no secret of her desire to run again for the nation’s highest office.  

Sat in the front row of the Paris court, Le Pen whispered “incredible” as the judge detailed his reasoning for the guilty verdict. She walked out of the court before the sentences were announced.

Le Pen, along with eight current or former party members, had faced up to 10 years in prison on the embezzlement charges. A dozen others who served as parliamentary aides for the National Rally party, formerly the National Front, also received guilty verdicts for their role in the scheme.

The judge said Le Pen and her colleagues did not enrich themselves personally, but called the embezzlement “a democratic bypass” that duped the French parliament and voters. He said Le Pen was at the center of “a system” used to syphon off EU money intended to pay EU parliamentary aides, to instead pay party staff between 2004 and 2016. 

Le Pen has denied any wrongdoing, claiming prosecutors were “only interested” in barring her from the presidential election. She told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, before the verdict was handed down, that the judges had “the right of life or death over our movement.”

Le Pen may have no choice now but to cede her party’s presidential ambitions to its current president, Jordan Bardella, a 29-year-old who took over as National Rally leader in 2021.