A French court has found Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, guilty of embezzling EU funds.
This could potentially lead to her removal from the 2027 presidential election.
The judge has yet to hand down a verdict, this is expected later today. Last year, prosecutors asked the court to sentence Le Pen to five years in prison, as well as a five-year ban from holding public office with immediate effect.
Last September, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, along with 26 other individuals and the party itself, went on trial for probable misappropriation of European Union funds.
They were all accused of having paid Rassemblement Nationale staff from funds intended for the work of the European Parliament.
The European Parliament has estimated its losses to be at least 6.8 million euros. If proven guilty, Le Pen could face a million-euro fine, 10 years in prison and a multi-year ban from public office.
Marine Le Pen, who led the party from 2011 to 2021 and ran for French president from it in 2022, said the charges were “above all political in nature”.
Marine Le Pen has been called a “friend of Putin”: she has supported Russia’s international policies on Ukraine and Syria, and has repeatedly spoken out against anti-Russian sanctions. Le Pen condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but noted that she did not want the French to suffer from sanctions on oil and gas.