Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, has been banned from running for public office for five years following her conviction on charges of embezzling European Union funds. The sentence, handed down by a Paris court on Monday, deals a crushing blow to her ambitions of contesting the 2027 presidential election, where she had been widely considered a frontrunner.
The court found Le Pen guilty of misappropriating over €4m in EU funds between 2004 and 2016. The funds, intended to pay assistants in the European Parliament, were instead used to support party staff working in France. Le Pen was also sentenced to four years in prison—two suspended and two to be served under house arrest with an electronic tag—and fined €100,000. Her party, National Rally, was ordered to pay €2m.
While Le Pen has vowed to appeal the ruling, the court invoked a “provisional execution” clause, meaning the five-year ban takes effect immediately, regardless of any appeal. She will retain her current seat in the National Assembly until the end of her term, but is barred from standing in any future election during the ban.
Presiding judge Bénédicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been “at the heart of a system” that diverted public money, calling it “a democratic bypass” that misled both voters and the European Parliament.
The verdict has thrown French politics into turmoil, not only sidelining the most recognisable figure of the French far right, but also leaving her party scrambling to respond. National Rally President Jordan Bardella, 29, is the most likely candidate to replace Le Pen in 2027, but he lacks her national profile and campaign experience.
Bardella called the court ruling “a democratic scandal,” and said, “Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly condemned: French democracy was killed.” He urged supporters to “mobilise peacefully,” launching a petition campaign to rally public support.
Le Pen herself denounced the ruling as a “political decision” in a televised interview, calling it a “denial of democracy” and comparing it to judicial practices in authoritarian regimes. “I’m not going to let myself be eliminated like this,” she said, promising to pursue “whatever legal avenues I can.”
The ruling has triggered a wave of international responses, with far-right and nationalist leaders across Europe voicing support. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted “Je suis Marine!” on social media, while Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini called the decision “a declaration of war by Brussels.” Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of right-wing causes, claimed it would “backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump.”
Others, including French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou, expressed unease at the precedent of courts determining electoral eligibility. “The choice to dismiss an elected official should only belong to the people,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed.
The case dates back over a decade and involves 24 other members of the National Rally. Nine former MEPs and 12 parliamentary assistants were also convicted of misusing EU funds. While none were found to have personally enriched themselves, the court held that party staff were wrongly paid by EU taxpayers for non-parliamentary work.
The ban has upended what many saw as Le Pen’s strongest chance yet at the presidency. She made it to the run-off rounds in both 2017 and 2022 and was consistently polling as the top challenger in 2027.
Her political future now hinges on the timing and outcome of the appeals process. If the court of appeal reverses the ineligibility ruling before 2027, she could still run. But such a process could take more than a year—making it increasingly difficult to mount a national campaign even if cleared.
In the meantime, the verdict has galvanised her support base, who see the ruling as confirming their belief that the political establishment uses legal means to suppress dissent. “Millions of French people are outraged,” Le Pen said Monday night. “This indignation is an additional push in the fight I lead for them.”
