Marine Le Pen is convicted of corruption and is ineligible until 2027

The leader of the extreme right party regrouping (RN), Marine Le Pen, was considered guilty on Monday (31) by the Correctional Court of Paris in the case known as the “scandal of fictitious jobs” in the European parliament.

The verdict condemns the parliamentarian for embezzlement of public funds and establishes a series of penalties that include four years in prison – two of them under home anklet, two with sursis – a fine of 100,000 euros and, above all, five years of ineligibility with immediate execution.

The decision directly compromises its candidacy for the 2027 presidential election, in which it appeared as a favorite in the polls.

The court determined that Marine Le Pen headed an organized and lasting funds system, operated through the fictional hiring of parliamentary advisers paid with money from the European Parliament, but in practice they acted as RN employees in France.

The fraud lasted from 2004 to 2016 and involved 24 defendants, including nine MEPs (eight of them convicted), 12 parliamentary assistants and RN’s own party structure, also penalized with a fine of two million euros. Le Pen’s direct responsibility was set at 474 thousand euros.

Perthuis Judge Bénédicte stated that the far-right leader was “at the center of the system” created by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and that she joined “with authority and determination” to the fraudulent scheme as early as MEP.

The sentence was read for more than two hours. Marine Le Pen left the room as soon as she heard the word “ineligibility”, abandoning the trial before the end. The immediate execution of the sentence was requested by the Public Prosecution Service in November 2024 and meets an exceptional criterion in French justice.

Usually, ineligibility only enforces after the judgment has been res judicata. However, the court understood that there was a risk of recurrence, as the defendants deny crimes even in the face of evidence gathered over almost ten years of investigation.

Among the elements considered by the judge to justify provisional execution are the severity of the facts, the systemic nature of fraud, the civil service of those involved and the “lasting threat to the rules of the democratic game”.

It rejected the defense thesis that payments could be framed as administrative failures or dubious interpretation of European norms. The court was emphatic in stating that there was no direct personal enrichment, but that the maneuver served to financially benefit the party, which also compromises the institutional integrity of the European Union.

The case began in 2015, after formal complaint presented by the then president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz. The investigation revealed that Le Pen hired at least four advisors who did not perform parliamentary functions in Brussels or Strasbourg. Instead, they provided internal services to RN in Paris, coordinating communication strategies and political organization, which is illegal under EU financing rules.

According to the prosecution, the party’s MEPs received 21,000 monthly euros for assistant wages and used these resources to keep the party machine running in France. Initially, the estimated amount of the deviation was 4.1 million euros, but Brussels estimates that the actual amount approaches 6.8 million euros.

The political impact of the decision is immediate. Le Pen had already announced that the 2027 election would be his last attempt to reach the Presidency of the Republic. Now, even with the possibility of resorting to the Paris Appeal Court, it is unlikely to be able to reverse ineligibility before the election campaign.

The process can take two to three years. This makes room for party president Jordan Bardella, 29, becomes the natural name of the succession. According to research doxa released on Monday, he already appears as the favorite of militancy.

The extreme European right quickly mobilized in solidarity. Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted “Je Suis Marine” on social networks. Italian Matteo Salvini, deputy premie of Italy, called the sentence “a bad movie” and “Brussels’ state statement.”

In France, the reaction was divided. Improper France has stated that it is time to “defeat the NO at the ballot box.” Green leader Marine Tondelier said Le Pen “must serve her sentence.” On the other hand, Éric Ciotti, Le Pen’s ally in the National Assembly, questioned if “France is still a democracy.”

The sentence also reverberates in the French Constitutional Council. The provisional execution of ineligibility may be the subject of contestation. The agency is currently chaired by Richard Ferrand, a name nominated by Emmanuel Macron and approved a few weeks ago per tight margin, thanks to the abstention of RN’s own parliamentarians.

Le Pen’s allies suggest that there is a “political debt” between Ferrand and the Party. To date, the Council has manifested only a similar case in Mayotte, when it endorsed the immediate execution of ineligibility for a convicted councilman. The decision on Le Pen’s case may open a precedent for future disputes on the limit of the judiciary’s performance in electoral proceedings.

Internally, the national regrouping has faced its greatest crisis since it was refused by Marine Le Pen. Party leadership is gathered in Paris to discuss the next steps. The deputy should comment at night during an interview with the TF1 news. It is not yet known whether it will leave political life or be influenced behind the scenes. In any of the scenarios, the sentence represents a watershed to the French far right.