Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, made three attempts and failed attempts to become president. Now, even if her popularity rises, she could be barred from taking part in the election to lead France if she commits the crime of embezzlement on Monday.
Such a verdict is certainly far from what is equated with Le Pen as a “political death” and a “very violent attack on the will of the people.” It would ignite a major political storm when France's Fifth Republic appears to be increasingly dysfunctional.
On the one hand, as one of the prosecutors, Nicholas Barrett, concluded last year the argument that “we are not political, not legal, and law applies to everything.”
Meanwhile, there is fear expressed by some major politicians, and the ban will undermine French democracy by giving suspicions that it is distorted by the growing power of hard rights.
“Madame Le Pen has to fight at the ballot box, not elsewhere,” former Centre Light Interior Minister Gerald Dalman wrote in X in November. He is now Minister of Justice.
Le Pen, 56, has recently piloted the anti-In immigration party from its anti-Semitic roots. Mainstream. The party, whose change from the National Front to a national assembly, is now the largest single party in the Parliament, with 123 seats.
Prosecutors accused Le Pen and other members of the national assembly of embezzling about $4.8 million in European Union funds. This was a member of the party, mainly because he was rarely there through his no-show work in the European Parliament, as he was rarely there.
Le Pen denied the charges.
Her lawyer argued that the 2016 law, which would allow her to automatically be banned from taking office, was not yet in place at the time of the suspicious plan, and that officials were political aides, not employees of the European Parliament. Mr. Le Pen was a member of that council from 2004 to 2017.
Prosecutors led by Barrett and Louise Naton demanded five years Le Pen's statement, three of them have been suspended. 300,000 euros, or 325,000 dollars, fine. And the five-year ban will immediately affect your position as a public office.
The purpose of Le Pen and her co-defendants was “to turn the European Parliament into their cash cows,” Naton said last year, claiming a strict sentence.
If imposed, disqualification would exclude her from the 2027 presidential election, where Centist President Emmanuel Macron, cannot be implemented due to his limited period. Le Pen was run in 2012, 2017 and 2022, with the voting share steadily increasing to 41.45%.
An ineligible violation against Le Pen could be appealed. However, the appeal process is slow in France, and it is not clear that a new trial will be held before the 2027 election, or that the prosecutor's case will be overturned.
The national rally was reluctant to speculate on the consequences of the possible ban. Le Pen's natural successor is 29-year-old Jordan Bardera, a smooth talker, a protégé who says that if she were president he would become prime minister.
When asked in a recent TV interview if he would run for president, Mr. Bardera punted. “I don't ask myself questions because she's not ineligible.”
With the rise in anti-immigration rights forces currently encouraged by the Trump administration in Europe, Le Pen is widely regarded as a strong candidate in the 2027 poll, perhaps even a favorite, if eligible.
Macron doesn't build anything strong The party will create a vacuum where more than half a dozen men, including Dalman and former prime minister Gabriel Atal, are rushing to fill the president's ambitions.
Last year's chaotic Snap Assembly election, four prime ministers over the past 15 months, and the parliament paralyzed by its division, gave the impression of a fifth republic, which has been rigorously eroded to provide consistent governance.
Le Pen's disqualification will inevitably intensify criticism from major American officials, including Vice Presidents J.D. Vance and Elon Musk, of the supposed campaign to counteract democracy in the name of European nations restraining the far right and saving it.
Hungarian and Italian democracy is derived from the current leader on the far right, or from the far right.
But of course, Europe has visceral memories of how vulnerable the democratic institutions are, and how authoritarian extreme movements destroyed them.
Jean Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front and Le Pen's father, repeatedly called the Holocaust a “detail” of history. She eventually banished him from the party. Le Pen passed away in January.
If the verdict goes against Le Pen, the 2027 presidential election will be the first in almost 40 years when there was no LE PEN in the vote.
Aurélien Breeden contributed the report.
