Marine Le Pen to appeal French election ban after embezzlement ruling

Gaspard Sebag, Samy Adghirni and Ania Nussbaum, Bloomberg News on Mar 31, 2025

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Far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s presidential ambitions were dealt a potential death blow after she was convicted of embezzlement by a French court and barred from running in the next election in 2027. Her lawyer vowed to appeal the ruling.

Judges at the Paris criminal court found Le Pen and her National Rally party guilty of diverting €4.4 million ($4.8 million) in European Union funds to finance activities related to their domestic agenda.

Le Pen was sentenced to two years in prison and and given an immediate five-year election ban, complicating her ambitions of taking over from President Emmanuel Macron.

Le Pen’s lawyer criticized the court for ruling that the ban should apply straight away and can’t be put on hold while she challenges the verdict. While an appeals court decision before the next election isn’t out of the question, it would be difficult given the complexity of the case and number of defendants.

An appeal by Le Pen will however put on hold the jail sentence, which the Paris judges suggested could be served under electronic surveillance and said it also included a two-year suspended term.

Markets took the news in stride as global trade concerns remained more immediate for investors. The spread between French and German 10-year yields, a closely watched measure of risk, was two basis points wider at 73. France’s CAC 40 stock index was down 1.6% in afternoon trading, falling along with other major equity benchmarks amid worries over U.S. tariffs.

Le Pen, 56, who was a top contender for the next presidential election according to recent polls, had said the prosecution was seeking her “political death” in making the request for an outright election ban during trial hearings.

“The ineligibility verdict likely means Le Pen’s political career is over,” said Marta Lorimer, a lecturer in politics at Cardiff University and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. “Coming back is going to be difficult after this.”

France’s next presidential election is scheduled to be held in April or early May 2027. The only way that timing could be changed would be if Macron was unable to fulfill his duties or if he resigned, something he has said he won’t do before the end of his term.

Power vacuum

The ruling may create a power vacuum within the French far right, which Le Pen worked for years to bring into the mainstream of national politics. A potential successor is National Rally’s 29-year-old party chief Jordan Bardella, who, according to polls conducted ahead of the court ruling, could be a viable option for claiming the presidency in 2027.

Le Pen’s trial centered on allegations that she and other party members elected to the European Parliament improperly used a budget allocation for EU aides. French investigators said the money was used to pay staff of the Front National — the party’s former name — who focused on domestic politics, rather than EU matters, as their contracts required.

The far-right leader has already framed the court case as a politically motivated attack. There’s a risk that Le Pen’s supporters would also view the ruling as a further symptom of an elitist system undermining their voices, at a time when Macron’s popularity remains low.

Observers have drawn parallels with U.S. President Donald Trump, who won a second term with a clutch of criminal cases hanging over him and, like Le Pen, has made trenchant opposition to immigration a cornerstone of his program.

“Her conviction will strengthen her aura in French society: that’s what we can learn from Trump-style American politics,” said Christophe Marion, a lawmaker from Macron’s party.

Messages of support poured in for Le Pen shortly after her conviction, with the Kremlin and Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban among the first to weigh in.

The presidential elections in Romania and the Le Pen verdict show that “democratic norms are being trampled upon,” in Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Matteo Salvini of Italy’s nationalist League party said the ruling was a “declaration of war,” adding that “we will not be intimidated, we will not stop.”

“Je suis Marine,” Orban tweeted in solidarity with Le Pen following the ruling, French for “I am Marine.”

Le Pen’s situation isn’t unique. French courts have handed out bans against several elected officials or parliamentarians — but they haven’t always chosen to make the ban effective immediately. The mayor of a city near Lyon was convicted in December and banned with immediate effect for five years for having hired his wife as a parliamentary assistant, without her doing any of the required work.

Judges have to weigh the proportionality of the measure. In the Le Pen case, the presiding judge described the wrongdoing as “a system put in place to reduce the party’s expenses,” which lasted more than a decade.

“These facts amount to a distortion of the democratic process and a breach of equality,” the judge said. She mentioned the risk of a repeat offense to order an immediate ban for Le Pen.

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—With assistance from Flavia Rotondi and Peter Chapman.