French Far-Right Leader Marine Le Pen Found Guilty Of Embezzling EU Funds

A French court has convicted far-right leader Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years. Meanwhile, Le Pen has criticised the court ruling as a "political decision". The court order will bar the 56-year-old politician from running in the 2027 presidential race unless she successfully appeals beforehand.

The court ruled on Monday that Le Pen used more than 3 million euros of European Parliament funds to pay members of her National Rally (RN) party. The Paris Court has handed the politician a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended and the remaining two to be served using an electronic tag rather than in custody. Marine Le Pen received a 100,000 euro fine, and her party was fined 2 million euros.

"I'm not going to let myself be eliminated like this," said Le Pen during an appearance on French TV station TF1 on Monday. The three-time French presidential candidate also reportedly stressed that the “rule of law was completely violated” through the ruling. Notably, she was runner-up to Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.