France’s Marine Le Pen has been banned from office for five years after being convicted of diverting European funds to fund her far-right National Rally (RN) party.
The key decision means that Le Pen is likely not likely to be able to stand in the 2027 French presidential election. It was her fourth attempt and offered her the greatest chance of winning.
The judge immediately imposed ineligibility on her beliefs. In other words, the ban on holding public offices will come into effect even if Le Pen sues.
She has also been sentenced to four years in prison, two of which will be suspended. The other two can be spent on electronic tags rather than being detained.
Le Pen is also fined 100,000 euros (£82,635).
She is very likely to sue prison sentences, so it doesn’t apply now.
At the start of the verdict reading, judge Benedictine de Perthuis said that Le Pen was at the “center of the system” when he saw the embezzlement of European funds of 2.9 million.
Le Pen was accused of hiring an assistant who, along with figures from more than 20 other senior parties, hired assistants who worked on issues with RN Party rather than the European Parliament.
At the trial last year, Le Pen denied committing “a slight irregularity.”
There was no comment yet from Le Pen, leaving the court before the sentence was issued along with the other defendants, heading to RN’s Paris headquarters. She is expected to interview French TV at 8:00 PM (19:00 BST).
Over the weekend, Le Pen told the media that he was “not nervous,” but the judge “had the power of life or death.” [political] Movement. “
Shortly before her sentence, Le Pen received messages of support from the Kremlin, Victor Orban of Hungary, and Matteo Salvini of Italy.
“Marine Le Pen is not the only one who was wrongfully declared. It is French democracy that was executed,” writes Jordan Bardera, president of RN, in X.
However, some Le Pen’s opponents say they have disapproved the judge’s decision.
“The choice to reject elected officials should belong to the people alone,” said Jean Luc Mellenchon (LFI) of left France (LFI).
And right-wing Republican Laurent Wokies said the decision would “have a lot more weight on the functioning of our democracy.”
“That’s definitely not the route I should have taken.”
It took almost three hours to read the verdict, which began shortly after 10:00 (09:00 BST).
