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Paris – On Monday, a French court banned Marin Le Pen from seeking a public office for five years, with an immediate effect, to assign a hammer to the presidential hopes of the far right leader and an earthquake for French politics.
Although Le Pen may appeal the sentence, such a move will not stop its unacceptability, which can exclude it from the presidential race in 2027.
The court’s ruling was political, as well as a court case for France, which embarked on one of the leading contenders for inheritance President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and last term, planned to continue until 2027. The political consequences were so wide that even some of the political opponents were reacted.
Le Pen herself was not around to hear the chief judge pronounce the sentence that she tossed her career in a queue. By then, she had already left the courtroom when the judge first indicated that Le Pen would be banned from office without immediately saying how long.
Although Le Pen did not comment immediately, her supporters quickly expressed disapproval. Jordan Bardela, her 29-year-old protégé, which could replace her on the newsletter in 2027, if she couldn’t last, he told X that Le Pen was “unjustly condemned” and that French democracy was “executed”.
Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Victor Orban quickly undertook social media to express his support by posting “Je Suis Marine!” – I am marine – at X.
Among the political opponents of Le Pen, who expressed concern was the conservative legislator Laurent Voukies, who said the court’s decision put a “very heavy weight on our democracy”.
The sentence may prevent her from running for president in 2027, a scenario that she had previously identified as a “political death”.
Only an appeal which cancels the ban on public office can restore her hopes of standing up. But with the election of only two years, the time expires and there is no guarantee that the Court of Appeal will rule more favorably.
The verdict was a huge defeat for the Le Pen Party. The judge also gave guilty sentences for misappropriation of eight other current or former members of her party, who, like her, had previously been deputies from the European Parliament. There were also 12 other people who were parliamentary assistants for Le Pen and what is now the party of the national rally, the former national front.
The judge said Le Pen was the basis of a “system” that her party used to drink the EU parliament’s money. The judge said Le Pen and other teammates did not enrich themselves personally. But the decision described the appropriation as a “democratic bypass”, which deceived parliament and voters.
From the first line of the court, Le Pen initially did not show an immediate reaction when the judge first declared her guilty. But it became more enchanted, since the sentence was then filed more and more. She nodded with her head in disagreement as the judge said that the Le Pen party had illegally used money from the European Parliament for her own benefit.
“Incredible,” Le Pen whispered at one point. Then she walked abruptly without warning, lifting her bag and walking outside, his heels clicking on a click on the floor of the hardwood floor, leaving distrust of her awakening.
The court condemned Le Pen to two years’ imprisonment at house arrest, but it was the political consequences of the unacceptableness that inflicted the largest blow to her predictable political future.
Le Pen and 24 other national rally employees were accused of using money intended for EU parliamentary assistants to pay employees who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the rules of the 27-national block. Le Pen and her seductors denied misconduct.
56-year-old Le Pen was a runner-up of President Emanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential election, and her party’s election has grown in recent years.
During the nine-week process, which took place at the end of 2024, she claims that the unacceptability “will have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate” and discouraging her supporters.
“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would notice that they were deprived of their election candidate,” she told the group of three judges.
The seemingly natural heir of Le Pen during the 2027 election will be Jordan Bardela, the 29-year-old le Pen protégé, who inherited her party in 2021.
Le Pen denied the allegations that it was led by the system intended to drink money from the EU parliament to take advantage of its party, which it leads from 2011 to 2021. It claims that it is acceptable to adapt the work of the assistants paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the laws.
The hearing shows that some EU money was used to pay Le Pen’s bodyguard – who was once her father’s bodyguard – as well as for her personal assistant.
Prosecutors requested a two -year sentence and a five -year period of unacceptable for Le Pen.
Le Pen said they thought they were “only interested” from preventing her from running for president.
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Leicester reports from Le Pecq, France. Thomas Adamson in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest contributed.
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