The Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders joins Hungary’s Orbán and Italy’s Salvini as he issues a critical reaction to the ruling against Le Pen. He says: I am shocked by the incredible [sic!] tough verdict against @MLP_officiel. I support and believe in her for the full 100% and I trust she will win the appeal and become President of France. Here’s how the presiding judge Bénédicte de Perthuis explained her decision, via AFP: “The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted... was a candidate in the presidential election.” Le Pen has just been confirmed as the guest of the TF1 broadcaster’s 8pm news programme, Journal de 20 heures. She has not made any public comments on the ruling so far. Another Le Pen ally, Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, has just offered his reaction to the court’s decision too. In a social media post, he said: 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. A bad film that we are also seeing in other countries such as Romania. The one against @MLP_officiel is a declaration of war by Brussels, at a time when the warlike impulses of von der Leyen and Macron are frightening. We will not be intimidated, we will not stop: full speed ahead my friend! The full verdict is in and Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to five years of ineligibility, with immediate effect – effectively ruling her out of the 2027 presidential race. 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 the prison penalty and fine would not be applied until her appeals are exhausted. The National Rally’s leader Jordan Bardella – who arrived at the party’s headquarters in the last few minutes to meet with Le Pen – reacts to the decision, saying in a social media post: Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that has been executed. Here it is: Marine Le Pen gets barred from running for public office for 5 years, with immediate effect. That extremely complicates – if not outright ends – her 2027 presidential bid. A huge moment in French politics. Marine Le Pen has arrived at her party’s HQ in western Paris without commenting. She is scheduled to meet party president Jordan Bardella. Le Pen has just arrived at the National Rally’s headquarters in Paris, but, again, not a word of reaction to reporters gathered outside the building. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán with an early reaction to the ruling, even before it gets fully delivered, as he expresses his solidarity with Le Pen in a social media post. He says: Je suis Marine! @MLP_officiel … and Le Pen has just left the court, before the sentence has even been fully read out. We are still waiting for find out the critical detail about the length of the ban though. We will bring you that as soon as possible. The devil here is very much in the detail: the exact length of the ban and whether it is with immediate effect will be absolutely critical in the context of the 2027 presidential race. We don’t have clarity on this question just yet – but we’re getting closer to that big moment. The court has said Marine Le Pen will be barred from running for public office, but the head judge has not yet said for how long and whether with immediate effect. Those details should follow in the coming hour. We are getting a bit more detail on the presiding judge’s explanation for the guilty verdict, via Reuters. The court found Le Pen, eight other people who were EU lawmakers at the time and 12 parliamentary assistants guilty of embezzling EU funds. The defendants were not accused of pocketing the money, but rather of using EU funds to the benefit of their party. 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.” Le Pen, who sat in the front row in court, could be seen at times shaking her head slightly from right to left, indicating “no”, while listening to the judge. The Libération daily adds that in total court found evidence of over 40 fictitious contracts over “nearly 12 years”, amounting to “more than €4.6 million” in total. A word of caution: we still need to wait for sentencing, including a decision on the key issue of whether the verdict will include a declaration that she is ineligible to run for public office, and whether it will be “with immediate effect” or not. Stay with us for the latest. We are just getting a first line out of the Paris court that Marine Le Pen and eight MEPs were found guilty of embezzlement of EU funds. But their sentences will be reported individually, the French media say, so we need to wait a bit longer for more details to come out of the courtroom. In opening remarks reported by various French media, the presiding judge Bénédicte de Perthuis warned that the judgment “is going to be a bit long,” as it gives “a number of explanations for the decision taken.” While acknowledging the broader importance of the case, including for political processes, she insisted the court will “proceed as usual.” The judges have begun reading their verdicts. Patrick Maisonneuve, lawyer for the European parliament, arriving in court, said that what was at stake was the embezzlement of European taxpayers’ funds. He said the European parliament sought to protect the rights of European taxpayers. The Paris court has now started delivering the verdict. No cameras or audio recording allowed inside, though, so it will take some time before we hear more about the judges’ reasoning and their ultimate decisions. It’s past 10am in Paris now, but we need to be patient here: as Angelique said earlier, it may take a while – even several hours - before we get the verdict. The French media are estimating it could take the head judge two or three hours to read the entire decision. I will bring you all key updates here. Marine Le Pen is not the only National Rally politician whose political career is in the balance. Louis Aliot, a lawyer who was formerly Le Pen’s romantic partner and is a party vice-president, is the mayor of Perpignan, close to the Spanish border. With a population of 121,000, Perpignan is the biggest city to be run by the far-right National Rally and is seen as a laboratory for the party’s local government policies ahead of crucial municipal elections next year. If found guilty and barred from holding public office with immediate effect, Aliot could instantly lose his job as mayor, dealing a blow to the party. Read about Perpignan run by the far-right here: Marine Le Pen has just arrived in court, but chose not to stop to respond to questions from reporters. Marine Le Pen and 24 others from RN, including party officials, employees, MEPs and assistants, were tried last November on charges of taking money from the European parliament as part of an alleged fake jobs scam. Instead of the money being spent on EU staff, they were accused of having used it to pay party staff in France. The European parliament estimated the allegedly embezzled funds amounted to about €7m. Le Pen and the others have denied the charges. Public prosecutors have demanded Le Pen be given a €300,000 (£250,000) fine, a prison sentence and that she be prevented from holding or seeking to hold a political position or five years. On Friday, in a case that did not involve Le Pen, France’s constitutional council delivered a blow to the RN figurehead when it ruled that politicians can be barred from office immediately if convicted of a crime. Any verdict that does not clear Le Pen of wrongdoing will leave her political future in grave doubt. If she is found guilty of embezzlement she will almost certainly appeal, which will require a new trial to be held, and any prison sentence or fine will be postponed until the appeal hearing is judged. If she is given a five-year bar on standing for public office with immediate effect it will be unlikely she can enter the 2027 presidential race unless the appeal process is speeded up and she is cleared in time to stand. If the judges decide the bar on standing should be postponed, she will still have what one RN member described as a “Damoclean sword” hanging over her political campaign. What’s the full context of this case against Le Pen and what are the possible scenarios, I hear you ask? You will be pleased to hear that we have a big explainer from Kim Willsher to help us out. At Paris’s criminal court, the head judge will begin reading the verdicts at 10am French time, and will take several hours to do so. Marine Le Pen and 24 people in the National Rally party, including nine former members of the European Parliament and their 12 parliamentary assistants, are accused of running a vast scheme over many years to embezzle European funds. They are accused of using money allocated to European parliamentary assistants to instead pay party workers in France. We will be hearing a lot from our Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis today, who is following this case for us. So, let me bring you her first update. The 2027 French presidential election may be two years out, but its first act will play out in a Paris court this morning, as judges hand down a verdict on charges the far-right leader Marine Le Pen and party officials embezzled money from the European parliament. Prosecutors asked for a €300,000 (£250,000) fine, a prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office. Crucially, it would apply immediately, even if she appeals against it. The court’s decision could prove a turning point for Le Pen’s political career blocking her from running in the 2027 race (she said prosecutors wanted her “political death”), and posing major questions about the future of her movement. But it could also reignite the debate over whether such political bans are even the right tool – or should it be left to the electorate to make final decisions on election day. Over the weekend, Le Journal du Dimanche, a Sunday paper, published a new presidential poll showing Le Pen as a runaway leader at 37%, over 10% higher than her first round result in 2022. A separate poll in Le Figaro earlier this month suggested 42% of French people wanted her to stand in 2027. The head judge will begin reading the verdict at 10am Paris time (9am London). I will bring you all the key reactions from Le Pen, her allies and rivals, and across Europe. It’s Monday, 31 March 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here. Good morning.
Author: Jakub Krupa