French far-right leader Marine Le Pen barred from running in 2027 presidential election

Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for public office for five years, meaning she cannot run in the 2027 French presidential election.

She was found guilty of embezzling European funds to finance her French far-right National Rally (RN) party.

Le Pen left the courtroom as the judge handed down details of the sentence. She has also been given a four-year prison sentence – but two years are suspended, and two years will likely be spent with a tag, rather than in custody.

She has also been given a four-year prison sentence, of which two will be suspended. The other two can be spent with an electronic tag rather than in custody.

Le Pen has also been given a €100,000 (£82,635) fine.

She will very likely appeal the jail sentence, so this sentence will not apply now.

Le Pen was accused, along with more than 20 other senior party figures, of hiring assistants who worked on her RN party affairs rather than for the European Parliament which paid them.

Prosecutors last year said Le Pen’s punishment should be not just a €300,000 (£250,000) fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years.

Crucially, he said the ineligibility should kick in straightaway, and not be suspended pending appeal.

Le Pen, the RN and two dozen party figures were accused of diverting more than 4 million euros ($4.33 million) of European Parliament funds to pay France-based staff. They had argued the money was used legitimately and that the allegations had defined too narrowly what a parliamentary assistant does. Judge Benedicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been “at the heart” of the scheme.

Le Pen’s removal from the race is likely to intensify a debate in France over how judges police politics.

Since her first defeat to Macron in 2017, Le Pen has patiently worked on softening her image, tacking her party towards the political mainstream and striving to appear as a leader-in-waiting rather than a radical anti-system opponent.

She now presides over the single biggest party in the National Assembly.

The judges also gave Le Pen a four-year prison sentence- of which two years are a suspended sentence – and a 100,000 euro fine. She is almost certain to appeal, and neither of those penalties would be applied until her appeals are exhausted.

But her five-year ineligibility sentence kicks in immediately, via a so-called “provisional execution” measure requested by prosecutors, and will only be lifted if any appeal is upheld before the election. She retains her parliamentary seat until her mandate ends.

Arnaud Benedetti, a political analyst who has written a book on the RN, said Le Pen’s five-year ban was a watershed moment in French politics that would reverberate across parties and through the electorate.

“This is a seismic political event,” he said. “Inevitably, it’s going to reshuffle the pack, particularly on the right.”

Appeals in France can take months or even years.

RN President Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old right-hand man, now looks set to become the party’s de facto candidate for the 2027 election.

While he has helped expand the RN’s appeal among younger voters, experts say it’s unclear whether he has the experience to win over the broader electorate the RN needs to secure victory in 2027.

“I am not sure that Jordan Bardella’s political proposition is mature enough to be able to compete credibly in the presidential election,” Benedetti said.

By Agencies