By Elizabeth Pineau and Juliette Jabkhiro
Marine Le Pen arrives at the Paris courthouse for her trial verdict on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds. Photo: ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
- Le Pen, others, found guilty of misusing EU funds
- Bar from running for office is massive blow to Le Pen
- She has been front-runner in opinion polls
- Only chance to run in 2027 would be successful appeal before election
- Allies at home and abroad condemn court ruling
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was banned from running for public office for five years after being convicted on Monday of embezzlement, a political watershed that rules her out of the 2027 presidential race unless she can win an appeal.
The French court's ruling was a catastrophic setback for Le Pen, the National Rally (RN) party chief who has long been one of the most prominent figures in the European far-right and who had been the front-runner in opinion polls for the 2027 contest.
The ruling could have wide-ranging repercussions on French politics as anger in the RN, which is the biggest party in Parliament, could push the hung assembly deeper into disarray, also complicating things for the minority centre-right government.
Judge Benedicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been "at the heart" of a scheme to misappropriate more than €4 million (NZ$7.5m) of EU funds and use them to pay the far-right party's staff back home.
The lack of remorse by Le Pen and other defendants was among reasons that prompted the court to ban them for running for office with immediate effect, de Perthuis said.
Le Pen's allies were quick to criticise the ruling as being politicised.
"Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly convicted: It was French democracy that was killed," said Le Pen's right-hand man, RN president Jordan Bardella.
RN lawmaker Robert Le Bourgeois told Reuters: "It's not up to a politicised justice to say who can run in an election or not."
But centrist lawmaker Sacha Houlie said on X: "At what point do we think that a judge will not apply the law? Is society so sick that it is offended by what is nothing more and nothing less than the rule of law?"
The judge also handed Le Pen a four-year prison sentence - two years of which are suspended and two years to be served under home detention. She received a €100,000 (NZ$189,000) fine.
'Political death'?
Le Pen, 56, will appeal, her lawyer said, and neither the prison sentence nor the fine will be applied until her appeals are exhausted. But the five-year ban from running for office starts immediately.
Le Pen has run three times for president and has said 2027 will be her final run for top office. Her hopes now lie on overturning Monday's ruling at appeal before the election. Appeals in France can take months or even years.
Before Monday's events Le Pen had described prosecutors as seeking her "political death". She left the courtroom in Paris before the judge read out her sentence, and without making any comment.
She was expected to appear in an interview with TF1 TV at 8pm (1800 GMT), after meeting with senior members of her party to decide on what to do next.
Allies in France and far-right leaders from European countries including Italy, Spain and the Netherlands joined in condemning the ruling as judicial overreach.
Photo: AFP
'Full steam ahead'
There have been instances of immediate political bans in France since the passage of toughened anti-corruption laws in 2016, but Le Pen supporters accused judges of policing politics.
"We will not be intimidated, we will not stop: full steam ahead my friend!" Matteo Salvini, Italy's deputy prime minister and head of the far-right League, told Le Pen in a statement.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: "Je suis Marine!"
Billionaire Elon Musk, a top adviser to US President Donald Trump, also weighed in.
Arnaud Benedetti, a political analyst, said the five-year ban on Le Pen was a key moment in French politics.
"This is a seismic political event," he said. "Inevitably, it's going to reshuffle the pack, particularly on the right."
Bardella looks set to become the RN's de facto candidate for the 2027 election. But while he has helped expand the RN's appeal among younger voters, experts said it was unclear whether he has the experience to win over the broader electorate the RN needs to secure victory in 2027.
Some opponents applauded the ruling, saying the independence of the judiciary must be respected. Others, such as Jean-Luc Melenchon of the hard-left France Unbowed, said they would rather defeat Le Pen at the ballot box.
Ahead of the ruling, mainstream politicians including centre-right Prime Minister Francois Bayrou had said they were ill at ease with the idea that any ban on Le Pen could be enforced immediately and stop her from running in 2027.
The RN and two dozen party figures were also found guilty of diverting European Parliament funds. The party was ordered to pay a 2 million euro fine, with half the amount suspended.
The defendants were not accused of pocketing the money. They had said the money was used legitimately.
Le Pen will retain her Parliamentary seat until her term ends. That will be in 2029 unless snap parliamentary elections are called before then.
- Reuters
