A French court on Monday Marine Le Pen From the search for public functions for five years, with immediate effect, for the diversion – a hammer blow to the presidential hopes of the far -right leader and an earthquake for French politics.
Although the Pen can call on the verdict, such a decision will not suspect his eligibility, which could explain it outside the 2027 presidential race.
The court’s decision was a political and judicial temblor for FranceEntering one of the main pretenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and last mandate, which should last in 2027.
Le Pen herself was not there to hear the chief judge pronouncing the pain that launched his career in a fall. At that time, she had already left the courtroom, when the judge said for the first time that Le Pen would be excluded from his functions, without saying at how long.
Political death scenario
The penalty could prevent him from presenting herself to the presidency in 2027, a scenario which she previously described as a “political death”.
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Only a decision to appeal which cancels the ban on the public service could restore its hopes of position. But with the elections at only two years, time is exhausted and there is no guarantee that a court of appeal would stabilize more favorably.
The verdict was a resounding defeat for Le Pen’s party. The judge also made guilty verdicts for having diverted public funds to eight other current or former members of his party who, like her, were previously the legislators of the European Parliament. There were also 12 other people who served as parliamentary assistants for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally Party, formerly the National Front.
The judge said the Pen had been at the heart of a “system” that his party used to siphon money from the EU. The judge said the Pen and other co-accused were not enriched personally. But the decision described the embezzlement of funds as “a democratic puncture” which deceived Parliament and the voters.
From the first row of the court, Le Pen had initially shown no immediate reaction when the judge declared him guilty for the first time. But it became more agitated because the verdict was then delivered in more detail. She hosted her head in disagreement when the judge said that Le Pen’s party had illegally used money from the European Parliament to his own advantage.
“Incredible,” she whispered Le Pen at some point. She then left suddenly without warning, picking up her bag and outing, her heels click on click on the hardwood floor, leaving the disbelief in her wake.
The court sentenced Le Pen to two years of underlying prison under residence, but it was the political ramifications of ineligibility that brought the greatest blow to its foreseeable political future.
Le Pen and 24 other officials of the national rally were accused of having used money intended for EU parliamentary aid to pay the staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27 -country block regulation. Le Pen and his co-accused have denied reprehensible acts.
Le Pen appreciated growing support
Le Pen, 56, was a finalist to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 presidential elections and 2022, and the electoral support of his party has increased in recent years.
During the trial of nine weeks which took place at the end of 2024, it argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being candidate for the presidential election” and of depriving her supporters.
“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement that I represent. So, tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would be deprived of their candidate in the elections,” she told the panel of three judges.
The apparent natural successor of the PEN in the 2027 elections would be Jordan Bardella, the 29 -year -old Pen protégé who succeeded him at the head of the party in 2021.
Le Pen denied the accusations that she was at the head of the system intended to siphon money from the EU Parliament for the benefit of her party, that she led from 2011 to 2021. She rather argued that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aid paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the legislators, including certain political works related to the party.
Hearings have shown that EU money was used to pay Le Pen’s bodyguard – which was once his father’s bodyguard – as well as his personal assistant.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of two years in prison and a period of ineligibility at five years for Le Pen.
Le Pen said that she thought they were “interested” in preventing him from presenting himself to the presidency.
Leicester reported the PECQ, in France
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