France’s Council of State has rejected the National Rally de facto leader Marine Le Pen’s appeal against her immediate ineligibility, which was handed down in March.
The case revolves around the employment of MEP assistants by the Front National – now National Rally (RN).
Between 2004 and 2016, the party funnelled €2.9 million from the European Parliament straight to its Paris headquarters, paying staff who were nominally parliamentary assistants but in practice worked for the national party.
Le Pen had challenged her removal from the electoral roll, asking the Council of State to refer a priority preliminary ruling on constitutionality (QPC) to the Constitutional Council.
Le Pen wanted the court to check whether the law used to make her ineligible is constitutional. If successful, such a move could have delayed or reversed her ineligibility.
During the summer, Philippe Olivier MEP, a special adviser to Le Pen, told Brussels Signal that the party “will exhaust every legal avenue available to them” concerning Marine Le Pen’s conviction.
But now that the bid has failed, she remains barred from standing in any future legislative or presidential elections.
Le Pen’s legal saga is not over; her appeal trial is scheduled from January 13 to February 12, which is expected to issue its verdict by next summer, “well before the normal deadline of 2027”, the year of France’s next presidential election.
