Marine Le Pen barred from running for French president
SUMMARY
On March 31, 2025, a Paris court convicted Marine Le Pen, National Rally’s steadfast leader, of embezzling €4 million in European Parliament funds, barring her from public office for five years and jeopardizing her 2027 presidential bid. Found liable for €474,000, Le Pen received a €100,000 fine and a four-year sentence—half suspended, half under house arrest—pending an appeal her attorney vowed to pursue. The ruling, after a four-month trial, smacks of political targeting, as prosecutors unusually demanded an immediate ineligibility ban, upheld despite her surging support against a faltering establishment. National Rally President Jordan Bardella decried it as an assault on democracy, hinting at his potential candidacy. Le Pen’s allies, including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Italy’s Matteo Salvini, slammed the verdict as a weaponized miscarriage of justice, echoing her claims of a system rigged to silence dissent.
