PARIS — Marine Le Pen’s plans to run for the French presidency in 2027 were dealt a likely fatal blow Monday after she was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds and deemed ineligible to stand in elections for the next five years.
Given surging support for her far-right National Rally party, 2027 had widely been seen as a potential breakthrough moment for her populist anti-migration agenda, and several polls put her as a strong contender to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the Elysée Palace.
The decision would appear to open the door for Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president and Le Pen’s heir-apparent, to become the flag-bearer for the far right and run for the presidency.
Typically in France, punishments handed down after a guilty verdict are delayed until the appeals process has concluded.
But the three-judge panel that heard the case took the extraordinary step of immediately enacting the ban on running for public office, which prosecutors had deemed necessary based on the gravity of Le Pen’s crimes.
Le Pen was also fined €100,000 and sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended. The judges did not rule that those penalties take immediate effect, so they could be delayed by a possible appeal.
Le Pen left the courtroom in apparent frustration before her sentence was announced.
All but one of the other 24 people on trial alongside Le Pen were found guilty and received a mix of fines, ineligibility bans and suspended prison sentences. The National Rally party was also found guilty and handed a €2 million fine, though that can be reduced by €1 million if it does not repeat the crime.
“Today, it’s not just Marine Le Pen who is unfairly condemned: It’s French democracy that is being executed,” said Bardella.
Bardella and other far-right figures in France and across Europe were quick to condemn the verdict. Some, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, even weighed in before Le Pen’s sentence was announced. The Kremlin deplored a “violation of democratic norms” and Italy’s far-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini condemned the verdict as a “a bad film” and a “declaration of war by Brussels.”
Le Pen and her codefendants were accused of illicitly siphoning European Parliament funds to pay for party employees who seldom or never dealt with affairs in Brussels or Strasbourg.
The court estimated that the accused had embezzled more than €4 million, €474,000 of which Le Pen was held personally responsible for as an MEP.
The defendants repeatedly professed their innocence over the course of the 4-month-long trial, but the prosecution presented damning evidence against them — including text messages from one parliamentary assistant who, months after being hired, asked to be introduced to the MEP he was supposedly working for.
Le Pen and the National Rally knew the trial would be a thorn in their side but were relatively sanguine about the process. And the allegations have done little to affect either Le Pen or the National Rally’s popularity.
The defendants were, however, taken aback when prosecutors in November asked that immediate ineligibility bans of various lengths be handed to all of the defendants.
The harshest punishments were reserved for Le Pen, as she was accused of participating in the scheme both as a former MEP and then running it as party’s ex-president.
If Le Pen is unable to successfully appeal the verdict before the next presidential election, the National Rally is likely to look to Bardella, the party’s loyal 29-year-old president, to step in.
Indeed, in a possible prediction of her own departure from the scene, she told the BFMTV network just before the sentence that Bardella had “the capacity to be president of the Republic.”
And while the future of populist nationalism in France has rarely looked brighter than it does today, Bardella’s lack of experience during a high-profile presidential campaign has fueled skepticism — even within his own ranks — about whether he is up to the task.
This story is being updated.
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