Marine Le Pen barred from seeking public office after embezzlement conviction

A French court has convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years – a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.

Speaking to French TV channel TF1 in her first reaction to the verdict, Le Pen called the ruling a “political” move aimed at preventing her from running in the 2027 presidential election and said that millions of French people “are outraged”.

Le Pen 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 sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, with two to be served under house arrest and two suspended.

The court ruling was a political as well as a judicial temblor for France, hobbling one of the leading contenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term.

So broad were the political implications that even some of Le Pen’s opponents reacted by saying that the Paris court had gone too far.

But it is too early to say how it will affect voters.

The potential elimination of Le Pen could fire up diehard supporters, just as US President’s Donald Trump’s legal problems motivated some of his.

But it could also leave her on the sidelines, deflating what had been her upward trajectory.

Le Pen said the court should not have made her ineligible to run for office until all her chances at appeal had been exhausted, and that by doing so it was clear the court was aiming “specifically to prevent” her from being elected president.

“If that’s not a political decision, I don’t know what is,” Le Pen said in the TF1 interview.

She said the ruling marked a “fateful day for our democracy” but vowed to keep pursuing what she called the now “admittedly narrow” path to the presidency.

“There are millions of French people who believe in me, millions of French people who trust me,” she said, adding: “For 30 years I’ve been fighting for you, and for 30 years I’ve been fighting against injustice, so I’m going to continue fighting.”

Le Pen herself was not around to hear the chief judge pronounce the sentence that threw her career into a tailspin.

By then, she had already walked out of the courtroom, when the judge first indicated that the 56-year-old would be barred from office, without saying straight away for how long.

Although Le Pen did not immediately comment, her supporters quickly expressed disapproval.

Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old protege who could replace her on the ballot in 2027 if she cannot run, said on X that Le Pen “is being unjustly condemned” and that French democracy “is being executed”.

Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, quickly took to social media to express his support, posting “Je suis Marine!” – I am Marine – on X.

Among political opponents of Le Pen who expressed unease was conservative legislator Laurent Wauquiez, who said the verdict put “a very heavy weight on our democracy”.

The sentence could prevent Le Pen from making what would have been her fourth run for the presidency in 2027, a scenario she has previously described as a “political death”.

The party’s most recognised figurehead and a formidable and seasoned political campaigner, Le Pen was runner-up to Mr Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.

Only an appeal ruling that overturns the ban on public office could restore her hopes of running.

But with the election just two years away, time is running out and there is no guarantee that an appeals court would rule more favourably.

Appeals in France can take several years to conclude.

The verdict was a resounding defeat for Le Pen’s National Rally party, formerly the National Front.

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 judge handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like Le Pen, previously served as European Parliament legislators.

Also convicted were 12 people who served as parliamentary aides and three others.

Only one defendant was acquitted.

All had denied wrongdoing.

The chief judge said Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament funds, though she said they did not enrich themselves personally.

The ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” that deceived the parliament and voters.

From the front row of the court, Le Pen had initially shown no immediate reaction when the judge first declared her guilty.

But she grew more agitated as the verdict was delivered in greater detail.

She shook her head in disagreement as the judge said Le Pen’s party illegally used European funds for its own benefit.

“Incredible,” Le Pen whispered at one point.

She then abruptly left without warning, picking up her bag and striding out, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor, leaving many in the courtroom in disbelief, turning their heads towards the door.

Rodolphe Bosselut, Le Pen’s lawyer, said he was “appalled” at the court’s decision, which he described as “extremely scandalous” and said would be appealed against.

The electoral ineligibility takes effect immediately, but the house arrest is suspended while she appeals.

During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, Le Pen argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate” and disenfranchise her supporters.

“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,” she told the panel of three judges.

Le Pen also serves as a legislator in France’s National Assembly, a role not affected by the ineligibility ruling that she can keep for now.

But if Mr Macron dissolves parliament again as he did last year and calls early legislative elections, she would be barred from running.