French far-right leader Le Pen barred from politics in embezzlement verdict
March 31, 2025 By Annabelle Timsit
The sentence means Le Pen, the guiding force of the National Rally party, cannot run in the 2027 presidential election, unless she successfully appeals.
A French court convicted French far-right leader Marine Le Pen of embezzlement Monday and barred her from running for political office for five years, French news outlets reported — a stunning decision that could upend the 2027 presidential election, in which Le Pen was considered a leading contender.
Le Pen, 56, the guiding force of the National Rally — a Euroskeptic party that was once an outcast of French political life for its xenophobic history but was made mainstream by Le Pen herself over decades — was also reportedly sentenced to four years in prison, including two suspended, and a fine of $108,000.
The verdict came toward the end of an hours-long hearing in which a judge read out sentences for 20 others who served as European lawmakers or parliamentary assistants for National Rally when prosecutors claim the party misused European Union funds. Le Pen, who was present for the start of the hearing, left the court before her full sentence was read.
Le Pen will probably appeal the ruling, and the process could play out over months, casting a long shadow over the election.
Le Pen, others accused of embezzling E.U. funds
Prosecutors accused Le Pen and others of using 4.5 million euros ($4.9 million) of European Parliament funds to pay parliamentary assistants who worked mostly as party staff in France.
The European Union’s rules state that “only expenses for assistance which is necessary and directly linked to the exercise of a Member’s parliamentary mandate may be defrayed.”
She and other officials from the National Rally denied any wrongdoing during their trial last year. And Le Pen accused prosecutors of wanting her “political death.” Prosecutors had asked the court to sentence her to five years’ imprisonment, a 300,000 euro ($325,000) fine and an immediate five-year ban from public office.
They said the embezzlement lasted between 2004 and 2016 and ended only when Martin Schulz, then president of the European Parliament, reported a possible violation to French and European anti-corruption authorities in March 2015.
Other parties have been accused of similar wrongdoing
The National Rally is not the only French party accused of misusing European funds: The Democratic Movement (MoDem), a centrist party, was also accused of paying assistants to do party work with European Parliament funds between 2005 and 2017.
Rodolphe Bosselut, an attorney for Le Pen, said in court that the practice was “harmless” and common among political parties in the European Parliament.
But prosecutors have argued that the scale of the alleged fraud in the two cases can’t be compared and that in the MoDem case, the alleged fraud “stopped spontaneously” and was not “systematic.”
During her trial, Le Pen focused on the political implications of the sentence that prosecutors sought against her. She told judges that political ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate” and noted that “there are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent.” But prosecutors said the courts must apply the law and ignore political considerations.
What happens next
The sentence of five years of political ineligibility applied with immediate effect means Le Pen can probably finish her five-year term as a member of the National Assembly — but she will be ineligible to run for public office after her current term ends, even if she appeals her sentence, said Pierre Mathiot, a political scientist at Sciences Po Lille.
If her appeal process drags on or if it is quick and her ineligibility is confirmed, the National Rally would probably choose another candidate to run in her stead — most likely her 29-year-old deputy, Jordan Bardella. That could cause a “major internal rift” for the party, which has mostly been led since its creation by Le Pen or her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.
The National Rally is “a party with many different views,” he said. “Albeit they all fall in behind Le Pen. If she were not their leader anymore, then I suspect Bardella … will be a lot less effective in corralling [the party] to remain disciplined and united and to cohere around one view.”
Either way, Monday’s ruling is not “the end of the story,” but rather “a step in the process,” Rahman said. Once Le Pen appeals, the Constitutional Council, France’s highest court, will ultimately need to weigh in, potentially setting a precedent for how such cases could be handled in the future, he said.
Le Pen’s trial comes at a moment of political crisis in France
France has been in the throes of political turmoil since the National Rally’s victory in European Parliament elections last year pushed French President Emmanuel Macron to call early elections in France.
That gamble kept the far-right party out of French government but produced a hung Parliament and thrust Le Pen into a kingmaker role in a bitterly fragmented legislature.
France went through four prime ministers in 2024, and the acrimonious divisions often crippled governance as France sought to avert a financial crunch.
The last government, under near-constant threat of collapse, was toppled in December when she backed a no-confidence vote, making it the shortest-lived government in modern French history. Even if she is banned, Le Pen’s party will still have this sway.
The move underscored how Le Pen has embraced a playbook, also used by President Donald Trump, to flex her political muscles and blame establishment elites for government inaction. Like Trump, Le Pen has also branded the mainstream media as hostile and was criticized in 2022 for banning a French news outlet from a news conference.
Comparisons to Donald Trump
Le Pen has been careful not to embrace Trumpism too openly, given that he is broadly unpopular in France. But her embezzlement trial prompted commentators to draw parallels between the two: Like Trump — who was impeached twice and faced charges including election interference and improper handling of classified documents — Le Pen has claimed to be the victim of a “deep state” witch hunt to keep her movement from power. She has questioned the independence of prosecutors and said the political ban they sought was a “violent attack on democracy.”
French prosecutors labeled the allegations of a politically motivated trial as “untruths.”
Monday’s ruling, though it is still subject to the appeals process, is likely to fuel “external criticism of France,” Rahman said — including from Washington.
At the Munich Security Conference last month, Vice President JD Vance blasted European governments for political fire walls designed to keep the far right out of power even as such movements gain ground in many European countries, from Italy to Croatia.
Rahman said the verdict in the Le Pen trial is likely to pique the Trump administration’s interest because “MAGA’s allies in Europe are ultimately situated on the far right of the political spectrum.”
“This is absolutely something JD Vance and others will speak to,” he said. “This administration feels completely unconstrained with taking views on domestic political issues in individual countries in Europe.”
But it’s not clear whether the backing of the Trump administration would help or hurt Le Pen and whoever would potentially replace her as her party’s candidate in the 2027 presidential election. “What we’re seeing at the moment is the center being reinforced all over Europe in response to the things the Trump administration is doing,” Rahman said.
Ellen Francis contributed to this report.
