National Rally (RN) party leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzlement of public funds and was banned from running in elections with immediate execution. She has also been sentenced to four years imprisonment, with two years suspended.
On the morning of March 31, the judge at the Paris court also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of Le Pen’s party who, like her, previously served as MEPs in the European Parliament.
According to the court, the politicians set up a system between 2004 and 2016 to funnel €2.9 million from the EP to the headquarters of the RN in Paris.
Le Pen has been “at the heart of this system since 2009”, according to President Bénédicte de Perthuis.
The court stressed that “no one was judged for having done politics”, but that it was about a “system” of embezzlement of public funds.
For this, Le pen and all elected officials were sentenced to ineligibility. However, at the time of publication, it was unclear for how long she would be ineligible.
In addition, 12 assistants were found guilty of receiving stolen goods.
«Marine Le Pen jugée : l'heure de vérité» : l'édito de @PascalPraud dans #HDPros pic.twitter.com/sQiavZcdtt
— CNEWS (@CNEWS) March 31, 2025
At the start of the ruling, the president of the court warned that the session would take some time.
“There is no desire on the part of the court to maintain suspense but it will do as usual, by giving a certain number of explanations for the decision taken,” she said.
“We understood that the stakes went beyond this single courtroom, but the court will proceed as usual,” she added.
Le Pen herself was found guilty of embezzling €474,000 of public funds.
The public prosecutor demanded a five-year ineligibility sentence against her. If this sentence included immediate enforcement, the RN’s leading figure would automatically become ineligible from running in the 2027 presidential election, even if an appeal was possible.
The sentencing occurred as Le Pen led significantly in the election polls for the upcoming presidential election. The latest Ifop poll indicated that between 34 and 37 per cent of the French electorate supported her, comparatively more than former presidents such as François Mitterrand or Nicolas Sarkozy had when they were running.
Le Pen’s closest competitor came in at between 20 per cent and 25 per cent.
Her battle with the court coincided with Romania’s leading candidate for the presidential elections, there who is also from the Right, and similarly being barred from running by a court.
Călin Georgescu, frontrunner in the Romanian presidential elections to be re-run in May, has had his candidacy rejected by the Central Electoral Bureau for reasons related to the source of his campaign finances. https://t.co/UCCfHE8veg
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 10, 2025
