PARIS – A Paris court convicted the French far-right leader of misusing EU funds to pay staff from her national party, handing her an immediate five-year ineligibility sentence.
Marine Le Pen was sentenced to four years‘ imprisonment, two of which were suspended, and two years’ imprisonment to be served at her home with an electronic tag. She was also fined €100,000.
Le Pen was found guilty of siphoning €474,000 for hiring four fictitious assistants when she was an MEP (2004-2017), who worked for her national party, Rassemblement National, instead.
“No one is accused of having engaged in politics,” the judge said in response to arguments of the far-right party’s lawyers, who pointed out that it was possible to work simultaneously in Paris, at the party’s headquarters, and in Strasbourg. They argued that the courts accused the party of “engaging in politics.”
More significantly, the far-right leader was deemed central to an embezzlement “system” that misdirected EU funds to her party between 2004 and 2016, designed to “ease the party’s financial burden.”
“Le Pen is guilty of complicity in embezzlement during her tenure as party president between 2011 and 2016, involving a total of €1.8 million,” the judge Bénédicte de Perthuis said.
The court also convicted 23 other Rassemblement National members, including employees, MEPs, and assistants. The party was fined €2 million, one million of which was suspended, and ordered to pay €4.4 million in damages to the European Parliament.
While the court acknowledged that none of the accused had personally profited, it stressed that the misappropriated funds benefited the party, “undermining democratic principles” and eroding “the trust of French voters.”
Le Pen has been declared ineligible for public office with immediate effect, regardless of any potential appeal. She left the courtroom before her verdict was officially announced.
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