France’s National Rally Leader Le Pen Barred From 2027 Presidential Election

Le Pen, whose party is a front-runner in polls ahead of the 2027 vote, also faces a potential jail sentence, after being found guilty of embezzlement.

Marine Le Pen and the Rassemblement National deputies during a gathering in support of detained Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, at the initiative of his support committee, in Paris, on March 25, 2025. Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

A French court has found the leader of France’s right-wing National Rally Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement, and issued a ban on Le Pen’s running for office that ends her 2027 anticipated bid for the presidency.

On March 31, judges from the Paris Criminal Court ruled that Le Pen—whose party is a front-runner in polls ahead of the 2027 vote—cannot run for public office for five years.

Le Pen was accused of using money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for her party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.

A criminal investigation began a decade ago, and many of the charges date back long before her first run for the French presidency in 2012.

Le Pen, who was charged along with two dozen party figures, denied any wrongdoing.

Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis ruled: “It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks.

“The investigations also showed that these were not administrative errors ... but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs.”

The judge gave Le Pen a four-year prison sentence—two years of which are suspended and two that will be served under home detention. She also received a fine of 100,000 euros (about $108,200). Le Pen can appeal the verdict, but that process can take months or even years.

The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of Le Pen’s party.

Prosecutors asked that Le Pen face an immediate five-year ban from public office if found guilty, regardless of any appeal process, using a so-called “provisional execution” measure.

Le Pen, 56, a three-time presidential contender, has said that 2027 would be her final run for top office.

The defendants said the money was used legitimately and that the allegations define too narrowly what a parliamentary assistant does.

Reactions

There was no immediate comment from Le Pen on the ruling.

Le Pen’s natural successor in the 2027 elections could be her 29-year-old protégé Jordan Bardella, who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.

Reacting on March 31 on social media platform X, Bardella said: “Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed.”

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini wrote on X that Le Pen’s conviction is “a declaration of war by Brussels.”

“Those who fear the judgment of the voters often find reassurance in the judgment of the courts. In Paris, they condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to exclude her from political life,” he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also signaled his support, posting on the social media platform in French, “I am Marine!”

Eric Ciotti, former president of the center-right Les Republicans party, said: “This is not a simple dysfunction. It is a system to capture power that systematically throws aside any candidate that is too far on the right and who has a chance of winning.”

A tough sentence “would cause considerable disruption since the main opposition leader would be prevented from running by the judges,” political analyst Arnaud Benedetti said before the verdict.

In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, published on March 29, Le Pen said she wasn’t nervous and that she expected mercy from the judges.

“With provisional execution, the judges have the power of life or death over our movement,” she said. “But I don’t think they'll go that far.”

The National Rally, which was known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018, is a right-wing populist and nationalist party.

Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le-Pen, the party’s founder, died earlier this year at the age of 96 and was a controversial figure in French politics.

Marine Le Pen, who assumed leadership in 2012, has softened the image of the party while maintaining an anti-immigration stance.

The party has been snapping at the heels of centrist French President Emmanuel Macron.

In June 2024, Macron dissolved the French National Assembly and called for a snap election after the right-wing National Rally party made gains in the European Union parliamentary elections.

James Lalino, Chris Summers, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s name. The Epoch Times regrets the error.