French far-right leader Marine Le Pen strode out of a French court as the chief judge on Monday barred her from seeking public office after she was found guilty of embezzling EU funds.
The judge hasn’t yet said how long Le Pen will be ineligible for running for public office — a decision that could derail the far-right leader's career and infuriate her millions of supporters.
Le Pen didn’t wait around to find out. In a moment of high drama, the politician picked up her bag, slung it over her arm and strode briskly out of the courtroom, her heels click-click-clicking on the hardwood floor, leaving disbelief in her wake.
The chief judge looked up at Le Pen but carried on reading out the sentence.
Le Pen left the high-rise Paris courthouse without stopping to speak to reporters and climbed into a car that drove her away.
Earlier Monday, from the front row of the court, Le Pen showed no immediate reaction when the judge declared her guilty. But she grew more agitated as the proceedings continued. She repeatedly nodded her head in disagreement as the judge went into greater detail with the verdict, saying Le Pen’s party had illegally used European Parliament money for its own benefit. “Incredible,” she whispered at one point.
The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like her, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers.
Le Pen and her co-defendants face up to 10 years in prison. They can appeal, which would lead to another trial.
‘A political death’ scenario
The sentence, even if she appeals, could prevent her from running for president in 2027. She has described such scenario as a “political death.”
The verdict was shaping up as a resounding defeat for Le Pen and her party. As well as finding her and eight other former European lawmakers guilty of embezzling public funds, the court also convicted 12 other people who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.
The judge said Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money. The judge said Le Pen and other co-defendants didn't enrich themselves personally. But the ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass" that deceived the parliament and voters.
Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of having used money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants denied wrongdoing.
Le Pen has enjoyed growing support
Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.
During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.
“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.
If Le Pen cannot run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.
Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of the system meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021. She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some political work related to the party.
Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.
Prosecutors requested a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility for Le Pen.
Le Pen said she felt they were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president.
