Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzling millions of euros from the European parliament – a verdict that could see her barred from standing to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the next presidential election.
The leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), a frontrunner in the polls for the presidency in 2027, was among a number of party officials accused of diverting more than €3 million (£2.5m) of European parliament funds to pay France-based staff. The defendants say the money was used legitimately and the allegations define too narrowly what a parliamentary assistant does.
Prosecutors have asked that Le Pen face an immediate five-year ban from public office if found guilty, regardless of any appeal process, using a so-called “provisional execution” measure. We were still waiting to hear if that is the case, with the judges still reading the verdict.
The prosecution had alleged that Le Pen’s party, the National Rally, had treated the European Parliament as a “cash cow”. She had been accused both as a former member of the European Parliament and as the National Rally party leader during the period in question between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors had recommended handing her a five-year sentence, three of which would be suspended, a fine of €300,000 and a five-year ban on running for public office.
Le Pen has accused prosecutors of seeking her “political death”, alleging a plot to keep the RN from power that echoes claims made by U.S. President Donald Trump about his legal woes.
In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, published on Saturday ahead of the verdict, Le Pen said: “With provisional execution, the judges have the power of life or death over our movement,” she said.
For more than a decade, Le Pen has worked at making her party more mainstream, trying to dull its extremist edge to broaden its appeal to voters.
She led the National Rally from 2011 to 2021. She changed its name from the National Front, as part of her efforts to distance it from the period when her father, Jean-Marie, ran it and it carried a heavy stigma of racism and antisemitism.
Now a legislator in the National Assembly, the French parliament’s powerful lower house, she has already positioned herself as a candidate to succeed Mr Macron, who cannot run for the presidency again, having twice finished runner-up to him.
In 2022, Mr Macron won with 58.5% per cent of the vote to Le Pen’s 41.5 per cent — significantly closer than when they first faced off in 2017 and the best score ever of the French far right in a presidential bid.
Ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate,” she pleaded during the trial. “Behind that, there are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election.”
Le Pen’s natural successor is Jordan Bardella, 29, who took over the helm of the party when Le Pen stepped back from that role in 2021. He would likely be her prime minister if she were to become president.
Yet observers say there’s no guarantee he would be able to convince as many voters as she does. In recent months, some inside the party have criticized his management as too focused on his personal career.
Since joining the party at age 17, Bardella has risen quickly through the ranks, serving as spokesperson and president of its youth wing, before being appointed vice president and becoming the second-youngest member of the European Parliament in history, in 2019.
Source link
