Key points
- Marine Le Pen will not go to jail
- Many hail conviction as an example of justice being served
- European far-right shows support for convicted leader
PARIS: A French court on Monday sentenced far-right leader Marine Le Pen to a five-year ban on running for office with immediate effect, throwing into doubt her bid to stand for president in 2027.
She was also given a four-year prison term but will not go to jail, with two years of the term suspended and the other two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet, the court ruled.
Many hailed the conviction of Marine Le Pen as an example of justice being served, where the legal system holds individuals accountable for their actions, regardless of their status or position. They said it demonstrates the rule of law and the principle of equal justice under the law.
Including 56-year-old Le Pen, nine figures from her National Rally (RN) party were convicted over a scheme where they took advantage of European Parliament expenses to employ assistants who were actually working for the party.
Concealing a crime
Twelve assistants were also convicted of concealing a crime, with the court estimating the scheme was worth $3.1 million.
All the RN officials including Le Pen were banned from running for office, with the judge specifying that the sanction should come into force with immediate effect even if an appeal is lodged.
“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,” said presiding judge Benedicte de Perthuis.
Three-time presidential candidate Le Pen, who scented her best-ever chance of winning the French presidency in 2027 when President Emmanuel Macron cannot stand again, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
She left the courtroom after her conviction and this sanction were announced, but before the judge announced the prison sentence.
“Right of life or death”
Le Pen had said in a piece for the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper published on Sunday that the verdict gives the “judges the right of life or death over our movement.”
With her RN emerging as the single largest party in parliament after the 2024 legislative elections, Le Pen believed she has the momentum to finally take the Elysee in 2027 on the back of public concern over immigration and the cost of living.
Polls predicted that she would easily top the first round of voting and make the second round two-candidate run-off.
The reaction from Moscow to the verdict was swift. “More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
European rightwingers react
“Je suis Marine!” (“I am Marine”), wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of her main allies in the EU, on X in support.
Waiting in the wings is her protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, just 29, who is not under investigation in the case.
Bardella, reacting to the verdict, said French democracy was being “executed” with the “unjust” verdict.
In a documentary broadcast by BFMTV late on Sunday, Le Pen for the first time explicitly gave her blessing to Bardella becoming president.
“Of course he has the capacity to become president of the republic,” she said.
But there are doubts even within the party over the so-called “Plan B” and whether he has the experience for a presidential campaign.
Le Pen took over as head of the then-National Front (FN) in 2011 but rapidly took steps toward making the party an electoral force and shaking off the controversial legacy of its co-founder and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year and who was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments.
“It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their MEP had not assigned them any tasks,” said the judge.
According to the BBC, Far-right leaders, currently growing in support across much of Europe, view her as ‘one of the gang’ – even if they don’t see eye to eye on every issue.
Many of these leaders took to social media on Monday to express support.
For them, this was an opportunity, not simply to show support for Le Pen but to use her case to highlight what they see as their common cause – a struggle against a politically traditional mainstream, that seeks to muzzle or undermine their nationalist agenda.
