A political blow
When the judge handed down the punishment, Le Pen, a prominent figure in French politics, was not in the courtroom. When the court first said she would be disqualified from office, she had already left. She shook her head in dissent, clearly upset as the ruling’s specifics became clear.
ecry the verdict
The decision was promptly denounced by her political friends. On X, previously Twitter, Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old protégé and 2027 successor, said that Le Pen “is being unjustly condemned” and that French democracy “is being executed”.
Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary, also expressed solidarity by writing “Je suis Marine!” on X.
The accusations and verdict
Between 2004 and 2016, Le Pen and twenty-four other members of her National Rally party were charged with embezzlement of European Parliament funding. The court decided that they had paid party staff instead of legislative aides by embezzling EU funds.
Despite the fact that she and her fellow defendants did not directly enrich themselves, the judge concluded that Le Pen had been at the center of “a system” intended to support her party.
Le Pen received a two-year house detention term from the court, but her career was severely damaged by the political fallout—her five-year ineligibility.
Le Pen’s defense
Le Pen maintained that she was not the mastermind behind the financial crimes during the nine-week trial, which ended in late 2024.
“The movement I represent received 11 million votes,” she informed the court. Therefore, it is possible that millions and millions of French citizens would be denied the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidate in tomorrow’s election.
She insisted that assigning EU-paid aides to projects that benefited party lawmakers was appropriate.
2027 presidential race
Given Le Pen’s disqualification, Jordan Bardella is thought to be the most likely candidate to win the presidency in 2027. A rising star in the far-right movement, Bardella became the party’s leadership in 2021.
