As of today, March 31, 2025, Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Rally (RN) party, has been found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds. A French court convicted her and several party associates of misusing millions of euros intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff working for the RN in France between 2004 and 2016. The court ruled that this was a violation of EU regulations.
As a result, Le Pen has been sentenced to a four-year prison term, with two years suspended, meaning she would serve the remaining two years under house arrest with an electronic tag rather than in prison. She has also been fined €100,000 (approximately $108,000) and, most significantly, barred from running for public office for five years with immediate effect. This ban effectively prevents her from participating in the 2027 French presidential election unless she successfully appeals the ruling before then.
Le Pen and her legal team have announced plans to appeal the verdict, though appeals in France can take years, and there’s no guarantee of a favorable outcome before the election. The immediate enforcement of the political ban is unusual in France, where sentences are typically delayed pending appeals, but the court justified it by citing the "gravity" of her actions and the potential "democratic public unrest" if a convicted individual were elected.
The ruling has sparked significant controversy. Supporters, including RN president Jordan Bardella and far-right leaders across Europe like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Italy’s Matteo Salvini, have decried it as an attack on democracy. Critics within France, including some political opponents, argue that while justice must be served, such decisions should ideally be left to voters rather than judges. Le Pen herself has called the case a "witch hunt," drawing parallels to legal challenges faced by other populist figures.
This conviction throws the National Rally into disarray at a time when it had been gaining momentum, with Le Pen seen as a strong contender for 2027. If the ban holds, Bardella, her 29-year-old protégé, is likely to step in as the party’s presidential candidate, though his relative inexperience raises questions about his viability. Meanwhile, Le Pen retains her current seat in the French National Assembly until her term ends, unless new elections are called, in which case she’d be ineligible to run.
The situation remains fluid as the appeal process unfolds, but for now, Le Pen’s political future—and her ambition to lead France—hangs in the balance.