Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to four years in prison and barred from running in France’s 2027 presidential election after being found guilty of embezzling millions of euros from the European Parliament. The far-right leader, who was a frontrunner for the presidency, was convicted alongside several party officials for diverting more than €3 million (£2.5 million) in EU funds to pay staff in France.
A judge on Monday, March 31, ruled in favor of prosecutors’ request that Le Pen be banned from public office for five years, implementing a “provisional execution” measure that takes immediate effect regardless of any appeal. The court handed her a four-year sentence, with two years suspended, and imposed a €100,000 fine.
During the verdict’s reading, Le Pen dramatically stood up and stormed out of the courtroom before being driven away from the courthouse.
The prosecution had accused Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) of treating the European Parliament as a “cash cow,” alleging that funds were misused between 2004 and 2016 while she served as both a Member of the European Parliament and party leader. Le Pen and her co-defendants argued that the funds were used legitimately and that the case misrepresented the role of parliamentary assistants.
However, Judge Benedicte de Perthuis stated, “It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their [EU] lawmaker had not given them any tasks.” She added, “The investigations also showed that these were not administrative errors … but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs.”
Alongside Le Pen, eight other former or current National Rally members, who also served as European Parliament lawmakers, and 12 parliamentary assistants were convicted. The judge emphasized Le Pen’s central role in the scheme, telling the court, “At the heart of this system since 2009, Marine Le Pen has placed herself with authority and determination in the system established by her father.”
Prosecutors had initially sought a five-year sentence, with three years suspended, a €300,000 fine, and a five-year ban from public office.
Le Pen has denounced the trial as a political attack meant to derail her candidacy, echoing claims made by former U.S. President Donald Trump regarding his own legal battles. In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche published ahead of the verdict, she stated, “With provisional execution, the judges have the power of life or death over our movement.” During the trial, she also argued, “Ineligibility would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate. Behind that, 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.”
For over a decade, Le Pen has worked to mainstream her party, shedding its extremist image to widen its appeal. She led the National Rally from 2011 to 2021, renaming it from the National Front to distance it from its earlier associations with racism and antisemitism under her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. In the 2022 presidential election, she secured 41.5% of the vote against President Emmanuel Macron’s 58.5%, marking the highest-ever result for the French far right.
With her political future uncertain, attention has turned to Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old successor as National Rally leader, who was widely expected to become her prime minister if she won the presidency. However, political analysts suggest that Bardella may struggle to command the same level of support as Le Pen. Some within the party have criticized his leadership as being too focused on personal ambition rather than party unity.
Following the verdict, Bardella condemned the ruling, writing on social media, “Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who is unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed.”
