French opposition leader Marine Le Pen risks being barred from contesting the 2027 presidential election after being found guilty in a case concerning the misuse of European funds.
Le Pen and over 20 other high-ranking members of the rightwing National Rally (RN) party were accused of using a fund of €21,000 monthly allowance given to MEPs for office assistants to hire assistants who then worked on RN party projects rather than European Parliament administration, which was deemed to be a breach of the law. Le Pen and nine other party members were now convicted for the same practice, while twelve assistants were convicted of concealing a crime.
During last year’s trial, Le Pen denied that she had committed the “slightest irregularity” and vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
While sentence has yet to be handed down by the judge, prosecutors last year argued that Le Pen’s punishment should be not just a €300,000 fine and a prison sentence, but also that she should be made ineligible from running for public office for five years. This would prevent her from running in the 2027 Presidential election 2 years from now.
This is significant, as Le Pen has run for the French Presidency a total of three times, in 2012, 2017 and 2022, achieving a greater share of the vote each time. In 2022, she received 41% of the vote against her incumbent opponent Emmanuel Macron’s 58%, garnering 13.2 million votes in total compared to his 18.7 million.
Her RN party emerged as the largest single party in the French parliament after the 2024 legislative elections, and with immigration on the rise as an issue of concern for voters, there has been speculation as to whether Le Pen could finally make a breakthrough in 2027 with this recent momentum.
Current polls indicate that she would comfortably lead in the first round of voting and advance to the two-candidate run-off in the second round.
Despite prosecutors’ recommendations, within European circles there is some disquiet about the prospect of her being barred from running, with France’s former EU commissioner Thierry Breton telling the media over the weekend: “There are a very significant number of our fellow French citizens who identify with Marine Le Pen’s words and her struggle, and personally I would be very upset, to put it mildly, if she were unable to run to represent them.”