Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen, the leader of the French far-right party National Rally (RN), has made headlines numerous times, especially for her bids for the French presidency. She has run for president three times and came close to winning against Emmanuel Macron in 2022. However, it seems her dreams of running for president in 2027 may be in jeopardy.
The nine-week trial, which began in November after nearly a decade of investigations, saw Le Pen and 24 other figures from the RN accused of misusing more than 3 million euros ($3.3 million U.S.) of European Parliament funds to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016, in violation of EU regulations. All those accused have denied the charges.
The court ruled that Le Pen had used four party employees as parliamentary assistants, including her personal assistant and her bodyguard, misusing European Union funds for her political party.
Delivering his ruling on Monday, Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been “at the heart” of the scheme. “It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, and that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks,” he added. He also emphasized that “these were not administrative errors… but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs.”
When handing down the sentence, the court stated that the crimes committed by Le Pen warranted an immediate ban from public office, according to Reuters. However, that was not the ruling. Instead, Le Pen was given a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, to be served under house arrest, and a €100,000 ($108,000 U.S.) fine.
Her party, RN, was also ordered to pay €2 million in fines for the €4.1 million it was accused of embezzling.
Le Pen has publicly argued that the ruling was a purely “political decision,” and she is not the only one contesting the verdict. RN party president Jordan Bardella, who is expected to take Le Pen’s place if she is forced to step down, said on Monday that she had been “unjustly condemned,” especially with Le Pen seen as the leading candidate for the upcoming French election.
However, internationally, several far-right groups, including Kremlin, a Russian state-controlled media company, have defended Le Pen, stating that her conviction showed Europe was “trampling on democratic norms.” Donald Trump also commented on Le Pen’s conviction, calling it a “very big deal” on Monday and drawing parallels with his own legal issues. His comments later went further.
“The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going so far as to put that Opponent in prison,” Trump said.
Elon Musk also weighed in on Le Pen’s sentence earlier last week, stating, “When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents.”
The international comments and involvement seem at odds with the “America First” policy, but the Trump administration has consistently railed against perceived attacks on other far-right politicians in Europe. This includes a court decision to rerun the Romanian presidential election, which saw a surprise win by a far-right candidate and their allies.