Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement, banning French elections in 2027

French court found the Marine guilty in a case of embezzlement on Monday, which prohibited her from leaving office for five years, with “immediate effect”.

The verdict prevented her from running for president in 2027 to join the Nationalist, Anti-Immigration National Rally Party.

Prosecutors also sentenced her to two years of house detention with an electronic bracelet and suspended for two years.

Le Pen, 56, won the runner-up for President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s election support has grown in recent years. After performing in last year’s legislative elections, the state rally had the largest number of seats in the National Assembly, forcing Macron to build a management alliance outside his own party.

Le Pen and party officials, formerly known as the National Front, were accused of using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay employees who worked in the party from 2004 to 2016, violating the rules of the 27-country group.

Judge Benedict de Perthuis read the verdict of the three panel of judges, saying Le Pen was the “central” of the program. The judge said that while Le Pen and other co-defendants did not personally sport themselves, embezzlement of public funds was a “democratic bypass” to deceive parliament and voters.

Le Pen shook his head repeatedly as he read the guilty verdict. “Incredible.” She once said in a low voice.

The judge also made guilty sentences to eight other current or former members of her party, who, like her, served as members of the European Parliament.

Le Pen and other defendants can appeal, which will lead to another trial.

Right-wing politicians make fierce judgments

During the nine-week trial at the end of 2024, Le Pen believed that it was ineligible to “will effectively deprive me of being a presidential candidate” and deprive her supporters of the rights.

“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So, …probably, millions of French people will deprive themselves of their candidates in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.

Her supporters were immediately aroused this sentiment by supporters in France and elsewhere.

The verdict was condemned by famous right-wing Italian politician Matteo Salvini and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“Je Suis Marine!” Post read on Orban X account.

The Kremlin also condemned the verdict in a statement.

Le Pen left the Highrise Paris Courthouse without stopping to talk to the reporter and climbed into a car that drove her away.

The court also made a guilty sentence to 12 other people who served as aides to Le Pen’s parliament.

If Le Pen can’t run in 2027, her natural successor will be Protégé Jordan Bardella, 29, of Le Pen, who inherited the party’s chairman in 2021.

Le Pen once believed that the work of aides who adapted to the payments of the European Parliament was acceptable, including the needs of parliamentarians, including some political work related to the party.

The hearing showed that some EU money was used to pay Le Pen’s bodyguard – once her father’s bodyguard, as well as her personal assistant.

Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founded the National Front in the 1970s and transferred it from the fringe party to the French election in 2002 runoff.