Marine Le Pen It is ineligible and, as possible next President of the French Republic, now he risks seeing his dream fade. And perhaps also the political career. A little while ago the Court of Paris declared it guilty of embezzlement of European funds together with eight MEPs and twelve parliamentary assistants. The RN leader was sentenced to four years in prison (two with suspended penalty, the remaining two with the possibility of electronic bracelet), a fine of 100 thousand euros and also to the penalty of unleabitability with immediate execution.
The accusations
The decision concerns the case of the European parliamentary assistants accused of having worked for the party instead of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016. The estimated damage is 2.9 million euros, of which 474 thousand attributed directly to Le Pen, even if – specified the togas – none of the defendants has been personally enriched. According to the judges, in those years the party would have used EU funds to pay assistants who worked for the RN in France instead of the European Parliament.
“It was not a question of borrowing the work of the assistants, but of mutualizing the resources of the deputies,” said the president of the court, Bénédicte de Perthuis. “It was ascertained that all these people actually worked for the party, that their deputy (of reference) had not entrusted them with any task” and that “they passed from one deputy to another”. “If the facts have not led to a direct personal enrichment, the facts constitute a democratic circumvention,” added the President of the Court. “It is an enrichment of the party, a circumvention of the rules that regulate the financing of political parties and therefore a democratic circumvention”. Le Pen had defended himself by saying that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the assistants paid by the European Parliament to the needs of legislators, including a little political work related to the party.
The prosecutor had asked for five years in prison for the pen (two of which), a fine of 300 thousand euros and the immediate inelegitability for five years. Just a few days ago she said: “I don’t think they will go to this point”. Instead The nightmare of the RN leader has materialized.
The political future without the pen
Before the sentence, The Pen He had flaunted security on a positive outcome of the procedure. However, the leader believed the hypothesis of “deeply anti -democratic” inadmissibility. Shortly before the end of the reading of the sentence, it was seen to come out of the court. The Pen was favored in the surveys for the 2027 presidential elections, with intentions of voting between 34% and 37%. Immediate ineligibility completely changes the French political scenario: Le Pen can resort on appeal, but the new judicial process will not suspend the penalty and it is therefore unlikely that Marine by 2027 can regain the possibility of applying. In the best case, the new sentence could arrive not before autumn 2026, a few months before the presidential elections. A race with this sword of Damocles on the head would make victory almost impossible.
To take his place as a candidate at this point could be Jordan Bardellathat just yesterday Le Pen had somehow praised for his skills that would allow him to “hold the position of President of the Republic”. The Pen He said that “when you reach the level of Jordan Bardella at his age, there is no reason to deprive yourself of an ambition that could overcome the current one”. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen will be able to keep his seat in Parliament until the next legislative, unless a new dissolution of the National Assembly.
“Today, it is not just marine le Pen which is unjustly condemned. It is the French democracy that is executed“, Bardella commented. Also Eric Pebbleally of RN, denounced an “unworthy judicial conspiracy” which “confiscates the democratic fate of our nation”. In a message published in X, the president of the party of the French Republicans asks “France is still a democracy”, given the “system” that “systematically discarded any candidate too on the right capable of winning, from François Fillon to Marine le Pen“.
The other condemned
In the end there are 23 defendants sentenced to penand ranging from six months of prison, with SOSpension of the pena, to the four years, two of which to serve, all accompanied by fines e penand ineligibility, sometimes suspended. Only one defendant was acquitted. Together with Le Pen, the vice -president of the Rassemblement National and Mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot were sentenced; Former Interim President of the Rassemblement National, Jean-François Jalkh; The MEP Nicolas Bay and the former number two of the Bruno Gollnisch party. In total they are eleven former MEP. Among the culprits are also some former parliamentary collaborators and the current deputies of the Rassemblement National: Timothée Houssin, Julien Odoul and Yann Le Pen. The party was also fined for 2 million euros in addition to the confiscation of one million euros seized during the investigation.
Salvini’s solidarity
“Anyone who is afraid of the judgment of the voters often reassure from the judgment of the courts – declares Matteo Salvini WARM – In Paris they condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to exclude it from political life. A bad film that we are also seeing in other countries such as Romania. That against Marine Le Pen is a declaration of war from Brussels, at a time when the war drives of Von der Leyen and Macron are frightening. We don’t get intimidated, we don’t stop: ahead all my friend! ”. Also Viktor Orban He tweeted solidarity with a laconic “je suis marine”.