France’s Marine Le Pen Found Guilty of Embezzlement, Banned From 2027 Presidential Run

Sophie Ulm 

Staff Writer 

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally party, was found guilty of embezzling funds from the European Parliament along with 23 others, according to Politico. The amount embezzled totaled over four million Euros, with Le Pen being held responsible for 747,000  Euros. Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison, including two years suspended and two under house arrest, and received a 100,000 Euro fine. 

The embezzlement centered around a scheme to create fake job contracts, which saw Le Pen  receive one of the heavier sentences. For Le Pen, the sentence includes not being able to run in  the upcoming 2027 presidential election, report The Guardian. Le Pen is banned from competing  in elections for the next five years. 

Due to the gravity of the case, the French court that sentenced Le Pen decided that the sentence  would be implemented immediately. Typically, reports Politico, French law allows defendants to  appeal their cases and be presumed as innocent while the appeal process goes through, meaning  that the sentences are not implemented immediately. In this case, the court determined that  allowing someone who had been convicted to run would cause a “major disruption to democratic  public order.” 

The prosecution for the case laid out ample evidence to support the charges of embezzlement and  the fake employment scheme, according to Politico. Evidence included a text message from an  assistant to Marine Le Pen asking if they could meet the member of the European Parliament  (MEP) they were supposedly working for, as well as evidence that some assistants had had as  little as one interaction with their designated MEP during their contract. 

Moving into the 2027 election cycle, Le Pen was polling at 37 per cent of the vote, according to  Al Jazeera. This put her 22 points above where she was in 2022 and 10 points ahead of any other  candidates in the current cycle. Le Pen’s apprentice, Jordan Bardella, could be selected to run in  place of Le Pen, though Le Pen still plans to appeal her conviction.

Le Pen’s conviction has also led to a series of protests in France and questions about the state of  democracy in the country. According to NPR, protesters gathered in Paris on Sunday, April 6, to  demonstrate their support for Le Pen. The protest was arranged by the National Rally party and was marked by cheers of “Marine Présidente!” and “They won’t steal 2027 from us.” For many  there, it felt more like a rally supporting Marine Le Pen than a protest. At the rally, Le Pen said  that she would “follow Martin Luther King as an example” as she appeals the verdict, according  to Reuters. 

One of the biggest calls at the rally, according to NPR, was Jordan Bardella’s call for the people  to be able to choose their own leaders. The biggest criticism that the National Rally has of the  verdict is that the ruling takes away the right of the French people to choose their leaders, since  Le Pen is not allowed to run at all. 

The wake of the case has left the French very divided on the topic. However, most polls show a  majority of French citizens support the decision. The Guardian reports that one poll showed 61  percent of people agreeing that justice was served, while another showed that a majority of  people felt the sentence was justified given the circumstances. Reuters reports polls showing 65  percent of people were not shocked by the verdict, and 54 percent felt she was treated like any  other defendant. 

Le Pen’s conviction has led to a rallying of other right-wing leaders from around the world. CNN reports that Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has voiced support for Le Pen,  calling the case a “witch hunt,” while Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, put out a  statement saying “Je suis Marine” (I am Marine) as an act of support.

Image courtesy of Getty Images.