Marine Le Pen disqualified for five years for diversion of European Parliament funds
- According to the Paris Correctional Court, 2.9 million euros were diverted by the French National Union RN between 2004 and 2016. In addition to Le Pen, 24 other party members have also been found guilty. Even with the appeal, the leader of the RN will not be able to run for the French presidential elections of 2027.
In addition to five years of disqualification, far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. Therefore, even if he lodges an appeal, he will not be able to present himself to the presidential elections to be held in France in 2027. Among the 24 other party members found guilty are former National Front FN president Louis Aliot and current party leader Bruno Gollnisch, who changed his name to National Union RN between 2011 and 2018.
In 2015 he began his research on RN by Martin Scuhlz, then President of the European Parliament. After almost ten years, the trial against the party began in September last year: according to the indictment, the money provided by the European Parliament to hire assistants for MEPs was used to pay for the party’s workers. Specifically, the party diverted 4.6 million euros between 2004 and 2016, according to judges of the Paris Correctional Court. For its part, the European Parliament reports that the far-right party diverted 6.8 million euros.
The dream of being President of France, further away
Jean-Marine Le Pen, who led the RN from 1972 to 2011, died in January, until his daughter Marine Le Pen took over. Although it was third in the first round of the presidential elections held the following year, its support for the party has grown significantly in recent years among French citizens: The RN was the party that obtained the most votes in the elections to the French Assembly held in June 2024, but not the one that obtained the most seats: The New Popular Front (NFP) had 182 deputies and 143 Le Pen parties.
In this way, it significantly improved the results obtained in the votes held two years earlier, almost doubling its seats in the French Assembly. Most of the polls predict that the party will continue to follow the trend in the 2027 presidential election: The newspaper Le Figaro, for example, says that in the first round, the RN would get 34% and 37% of the votes – 30% of the votes in the 2022 elections.
Reactions at the international level
Reactions to the decision of the Paris Correctional Court have been swiftly dismissed. Jordan Barella, president of the RN, has stated in a message published on the networks that the judges have not only punished Le Pen "unfairly", but also French democracy. Russian government spokesman Dimitri Peskov said in his daily appearance before journalists that the anti-Le Pen ruling "violates democratic rules."
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