Marine Le Pen banned from running in 2027 presidential election
Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years, as ITV News Europe Editor James Mates reports
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right French National Rally party, has been banned from running in the 2027 presidential election after being found guilty of embezzlement.
Speaking to French TV channel TF1 after the verdict, Le Pen called the ruling a "political" move, adding that millions of French people "are outraged."
She called the verdict a violation of the rule of law, said she would appeal and asked that the court proceedings take place before the 2027 campaign.
She would remain ineligible to be a candidate until the appeal is decided.
Le Pen was also fined 100,000 euros and was sentenced to four years imprisonment, with two to be served under house arrest and two suspended.
Marine Le Pen left court without speaking to reporters
The verdict was a resounding defeat for Le Pen's National Rally party.
She and 24 other party officials were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.
The ban will upend French politics and force National Rally to run another candidate. If Ms Le Pen had run in the election she would have been guaranteed to be one of the favourites to win.
Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.
During the trial, Le Pen said that being banned from running for office would be "political death."
Across the nine-week trial in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility "would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchising her supporters.
The ruling instantly sparked an outcry across Europe with far-right leaders in the EU voicing their support for Le Pen.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted on X "Je suis Marine!", while Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini said "JeSoutiensMarine" (I support Marine).
The shock was also felt strongly inside France, with National Rally politicians quick to express outrage and some of their political opponents also criticising the judge's sentence.
Conservative lawmaker Laurent Wauquiez said the court ruling put "a very heavy weight on our democracy".
The court ruling said on Monday that Le Pen’s party operated "a system" to siphon off EU parliament money.
The defendants were accused of using money to pay for EU aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. All of the accused denied any wrongdoing.
Le Pen showed no reaction as the chief judge declared her guilty. She later repeatedly shook her head in disagreement as the judge went into greater detail, saying her party had illegally used European Parliament money for its own benefit. "Incredible," she whispered at one point.
Among the guilty were eight of the party's current or former MEPs and 12 people who served as parliamentary aides for Ms Le Pen and the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.
The judge said Le Pen had been at the heart of "a system" that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money.
They added Le Pen and other co-defendants didn’t enrich themselves personally but the ruling described the embezzlement as "a democratic bypass" that deceived the parliament and voters.
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Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of the system meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021.
She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some highly political work related to the party.
Le Pen has said she feels the prosecutors were "only interested" in preventing her from running for office.
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