A court in Paris has found Marine Le Pen and eight MEPs from the National Unification Party guilty of embezzlement of EU funds. Another 12 deputies’ assistants were convicted of concealing relevant information. The ideological leader of France’s main right-wing party has been banned from holding office for five years. This raises a big question for the party about who to nominate for president in the 2027 elections.
The situation before the verdict was announced was like a movie. Everything was important, starting with whether a prominent politician would be banned from holding public office and for how long. And whether she will remain free at all. Marine Le Pen left the courtroom without waiting for the verdict to be announced.
But two key theses came out of the judge’s mouth by that time: Le Pen and her party members were found guilty and she is not allowed to hold positions, including the presidential one.
First of all, Le Pen went to a meeting with the formal leader of the party, Jordan Bardella. The media emphasized that the plan “B” of the “National Association” could be connected with him. Bardella may be nominated as a candidate for the highest state post of the Fifth Republic. And if he wins, he can delegate his power to Le Pen, probably even trying to promote her to the post of prime minister of the country.
A little later, the details of the court verdict became known. Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison, two of them involve wearing an electronic bracelet, and two more are suspended. You cannot hold public office for five years. Le Pen will also have to pay a fine of 100,000 euros.
There is no doubt that accusations of politicization will be leveled at the judiciary. Even before the verdict, Le Pen herself stated that the French were simply being deprived of the opportunity to choose an alternative.
Jordan Bardella wrote on social media that the judges “destroyed French democracy.”
However, the story turned out to be very unpleasant. Le Pen and other MEPs paid from the wallets of taxpayers in the European Union for the work of their assistants, who participated only in French politics. These assistants, in fact, had no tasks related to the work of the European Parliament.
Simply put, Le Pen and her associates did not even bother to draw up formal tasks for their assistants on European issues, that is, they turned out to be extremely naive offenders who do not know how to launder money.
Le Pen, who has been losing the presidential election over and over again, suddenly has a very encouraging prospect. President Emmanuel Macron’s ministers failed to gain the trust of voters, and Macron himself lost a lot of credibility, despite a convincing victory in 2022. The French are unhappy with pension reform, migration policy, economic difficulties and the decline in the country’s international prestige. However, Le Pen’s verdict calls into question any political prospects at all.
Surely the verdict will be appealed. Le Pen expressed her disagreement with gestures in the courthouse. But she refused a verbal reaction. Her lawyers have already announced their intention to appeal the verdict.
Le Pen was supported by a number of right-wing politicians, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Deputy Italian Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. The latter said that “Brussels has declared war” and that the trial of Le Pen is “a poorly shot film, just like in Romania.”
Le Pen received support from political opponents. So Eric Zemmour noted that “it is not for the courts to decide who the voters should vote for.” “Whatever our differences, Marine Le Pen has the right to run for election,” the far–right politician believes.
And even the irreconcilable opponents of the “National Unification” – representatives of the far-left “Unconquered France” – were very skeptical about the verdict.
The “Unconquered France” never expected to be able to get rid of the “National Association” with the help of the court. We are fighting them at the polling stations and on the streets, mobilizing the French people, as we did during the legislative elections in 2024. Tomorrow we will fight in the elections again, no matter who their candidate is,” this is how the far–left reacted on their social networks to Le Pen’s verdict.
The Kremlin did not stand aside either. “More and more European capitals are following the path of violating democratic norms. Of course, we do not want to interfere in the internal affairs of France, we have never done this, and this is an internal matter of France. But in general, our observations of European capitals indicate that they absolutely do not shy away from going beyond democracy during the political process,” said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation.
