French politician Marine Le Pen and eight other members of her right-wing party were found guilty of embezzling public funds on Monday, and she herself was barred from running for public office.
The French court did not immediately announce how long Le Penn will be ineligible for office, and she stormed out of the courtroom before he finished reading her sentence. She is a top candidate to run for president in 2027, and Le Pen has said that prohibiting her from running in that election would be ‘political death.’
Le Pen has argued that such a sentence would also effectively disenfranchise her voters. She came in second place to French President Emmanuel Macron in both the 2017 and 2022 elections, and her National Rally party has grown massively in support in recent years.
‘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,’ Le Pen told the court prior to her sentencing.
The facts of her case relate to the spending of funds from the European Parliament to support aspects of the National Rally party. Prosecutors established in court that EU parliament funds were used to pay Le Pen’s bodyguard as well as her personal assistant. The other defendants were convicted of similar uses of the funding.
Prosecutors requested a 2-year prison sentence as well as a 5-year period of political ineligibility for Le Pen.
Le Pen said she felt they were ‘only interested’ in preventing her from running for president.
Le Pen and other right-wing figures have risen in Europe thanks in large part to a surge in anti-mass immigration sentiment.
Her court ruling comes as Macron has struggled to come to grips with President Donald Trump’s return in the U.S., leading to conflict between Europe and the U.S. over economic policies and the defense of Ukraine.
Last week, the Trump administration touted its negotiations with Ukraine and Russia and said both nations had agreed to ‘eliminate the use of force’ in the Black Sea – but the Kremlin later confirmed this was only contingent on the removal of international economic restrictions.
‘Russia shall have no right of say regarding the support we are providing and will provide Ukraine, nor shall they set the conditions,’ Macron reportedly said in response.
Macron also shot down Trump’s call for Europe to consider ending sanctions on Moscow.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.