Marine Le Pen Found Guilty of Embezzlement, Banned From Next Elections
Wall Street Journal
By Noemie Bisserbe and Stacy Meichtry
Updated March 31, 2025 8:01 am ET
A French court convicted Marine Le Pen of misusing European Union funds, banning her from the next presidential election in a ruling that shakes the country’s political landscape.
Judges handed down a sentence Monday that bars Le Pen from seeking public office for the next five years, upending France’s political order and thrusting her far-right party into limbo. Le Pen also received a four-year prison sentence. Half of that term was suspended, judges said, adding that she could serve the remaining two years by using an electronic bracelet or other alternatives to jail time.
The ruling takes Le Pen out of contention for the 2027 race, when President Emmanuel Macron finishes his second and final term and she was expected to be the front-runner.
The court ruled that Le Pen and other members of her party illegally used 4.4 million euros, equivalent to $4.8 million, in EU funding that was earmarked for assistants helping lawmakers in the European Parliament with their work. Instead, judges said, Le Pen and her lawmakers used the money to pay party staffers who weren’t involved in work for the parliament.
Judges applied “provisional execution” to Le Pen’s ban, which means that it takes effect immediately, even if she appeals Monday’s ruling. Her prison sentence, meanwhile, remains suspended while any appeals are under way. The appeals process in France can be lengthy, making it unclear if Le Pen can overturn the ruling before the 2027 election.
Le Pen, clad in a white blouse and blue jacket, struck a note of defiance toward the end of the proceeding, leaving the courtroom before Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis finished reading the ruling.
Le Pen had sat impassively in the courtroom for most of the verdict, occasionally shaking her head. But once it became clear the court was banning her from running for office with immediate effect, she stood up and walked out of the tribunal without speaking to reporters outside.
Earlier in the trial, Le Pen denied the charges, testifying in court that it was appropriate for the assistants to perform other party-related work because they were political aides, not direct employees of the European Parliament.
Monday’s ruling triggered a political earthquake in France and beyond. Le Pen has been a mainstay of presidential elections for more than a decade. Her anti-immigration rhetoric has resonated with millions of voters, pushing establishment parties to toughen their own stances on immigration. Le Pen has zeroed in on the religious practices of French Muslims—such as wearing headscarves in public spaces—that she says violate France’s strict separation of state and religion.
“Today it’s not only Marine Le Pen that has been unjustly condemned. It’s French democracy that’s being executed,” said Jordan Bardella, a protégé of Le Pen and president of her National Rally party.
“Je suis Marine!” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a Le Pen ally, wrote on X, riffing on the “Je suis Charlie” meme that spread across the internet in solidarity with the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo magazine after it was massacred in a 2015 terrorist attack.
Judges said Le Pen played a central role in organizing a system that facilitated the illegal payments system, following in the footsteps of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who initially set up the system. The payment system, judges said, allowed a circle of senior party members to enrich themselves, though Le Pen herself didn’t personally benefit.
By Noemie Bisserbe and Stacy Meichtry
Updated March 31, 2025 8:01 am ET
A French court convicted Marine Le Pen of misusing European Union funds, banning her from the next presidential election in a ruling that shakes the country’s political landscape.
Judges handed down a sentence Monday that bars Le Pen from seeking public office for the next five years, upending France’s political order and thrusting her far-right party into limbo. Le Pen also received a four-year prison sentence. Half of that term was suspended, judges said, adding that she could serve the remaining two years by using an electronic bracelet or other alternatives to jail time.
The ruling takes Le Pen out of contention for the 2027 race, when President Emmanuel Macron finishes his second and final term and she was expected to be the front-runner.
The court ruled that Le Pen and other members of her party illegally used 4.4 million euros, equivalent to $4.8 million, in EU funding that was earmarked for assistants helping lawmakers in the European Parliament with their work. Instead, judges said, Le Pen and her lawmakers used the money to pay party staffers who weren’t involved in work for the parliament.
Judges applied “provisional execution” to Le Pen’s ban, which means that it takes effect immediately, even if she appeals Monday’s ruling. Her prison sentence, meanwhile, remains suspended while any appeals are under way. The appeals process in France can be lengthy, making it unclear if Le Pen can overturn the ruling before the 2027 election.
Le Pen, clad in a white blouse and blue jacket, struck a note of defiance toward the end of the proceeding, leaving the courtroom before Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis finished reading the ruling.
Le Pen had sat impassively in the courtroom for most of the verdict, occasionally shaking her head. But once it became clear the court was banning her from running for office with immediate effect, she stood up and walked out of the tribunal without speaking to reporters outside.
Earlier in the trial, Le Pen denied the charges, testifying in court that it was appropriate for the assistants to perform other party-related work because they were political aides, not direct employees of the European Parliament.
Monday’s ruling triggered a political earthquake in France and beyond. Le Pen has been a mainstay of presidential elections for more than a decade. Her anti-immigration rhetoric has resonated with millions of voters, pushing establishment parties to toughen their own stances on immigration. Le Pen has zeroed in on the religious practices of French Muslims—such as wearing headscarves in public spaces—that she says violate France’s strict separation of state and religion.
“Today it’s not only Marine Le Pen that has been unjustly condemned. It’s French democracy that’s being executed,” said Jordan Bardella, a protégé of Le Pen and president of her National Rally party.
“Je suis Marine!” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a Le Pen ally, wrote on X, riffing on the “Je suis Charlie” meme that spread across the internet in solidarity with the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo magazine after it was massacred in a 2015 terrorist attack.
Judges said Le Pen played a central role in organizing a system that facilitated the illegal payments system, following in the footsteps of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who initially set up the system. The payment system, judges said, allowed a circle of senior party members to enrich themselves, though Le Pen herself didn’t personally benefit.
