French Courts and the Le Pen Ruling
Marie Yvernat and Leoni Schmitz
October 15, 2025

On Monday 31st of March 2025, Marine Le Pen, central figure of the French far-right and frontrunner for the 2027 presidential elections, was convicted for public fund mismanagement and embezzlement. Effective immediately, Le Pen faces a five year ban on running for political office, removing the candidate most likely to succeed Macron from the 2027 race. Other features of the sentence include a 100,000 euros fine and four years prison sentence, two of which need to be served under house arrest. The severity of the decision took many by surprise, Le Pen most of all. Political chatter suggests that the Rassemblement National (RN) had not prepared for the worst case scenario, and the decision has sent shock waves through the ranks of the party, as their 'chef de rang' grapples with the consequences of a crime she herself decried a decade prior. She appealed immediately.

At the center of this drama lies a crucial question: was the judges' decision political or purely judicial? Did Le Pen's political views and her leading position in the 2027 race influence the court's ruling, or is this simply rhetoric from her party to regain public trust? This question is all the more pressing because the ruling stands out - not due to the expected prison sentence or fine, but because of the immediate effect of her ineligibility.

Which crimes have been committed? Marine Le Pen and her party, which was then known as the Front National (FN), have been convicted of organising a systematic scheme of financial misuse between 2004 and 2016. This scheme involved diverting taxpayers' money - originally allocated to members of the European Parliament - to fund the FN's national campaign activities within France. At least eight fictitious contracts were drawn up for jobs that did not exist in Brussels, used instead to pay consultants and campaign advisors to FN members in France. Funds meant to support European projects were intentionally siphoned to refill the FN's accounts during a time of financial difficulty for the party, ultimately costing European taxpayers nearly three million euros.

The FN did not invent such a scheme. Current Prime Minister and moderate right-wing figure François Bayrou was also convicted of a similar offence in 2019 at first instance - although he was cleared of all charges in 2024. Bayrou's case has often been compared to Le Pen's, given the high profile of both figures and the recentness of his trial - yet his case is only part of a broader pattern of such offenses across the political landscape. According to Nicolas Aissa, director of Transparency International, 139 MEPs misused funds intended for parliamentary assistants, with the European Parliament recovering money on 155 occasions between 2019 and 2022. Notably, La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is currently also under investigation for similar offenses.

Le Pen's hypocrisy did not go unnoticed. While such misconduct was taking place within her own party, Le Pen herself led a high-profile offensive against what she described as Brussels' culture of financial corruption. In a series of interviews and press statements, she accused mainstream parties - including the Parti Socialiste (PS) and Les Républicains (formerly Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, UMP) - of misusing funds allocated to MEPs, calling for lifelong ineligibility for anyone found guilty. She positioned herself as the moral exception, famously declaring on Public Sénat: "moi, ma veste elle est immaculée," - implying that her and her party's conduct had been irreproachable. While Le Pen's accusations remained speculative and no trial was held for UMP or PS members, her own record turned out far from immaculate.

French politics split over Le Pen's disqualification. Although many in traditional parties felt a sense of relief that Le Pen's disqualification could alter the course of the 2027 presidential race, others expressed unease towards what they see as a loaded political decision. François Bayrou, who was himself accused and exonerated of a similar offense, said he was "troubled" by the severity of the sentence. Julien Aubert, vice president of Les Republicains (LR), went even further arguing that the discrepancy between these two decisions calls into question judicial impartiality. What these commentators forget to specify, however, is that the scale of Le Pen's crimes goes far beyond Bayrou's.

The scale and structure of the FN's wrongdoing place it in a different category altogether. In purely financial terms, the damage caused by the FN scheme totals €2.9 million - eight times the €350,000 attributed to the MoDem case. Similarly, the level of individual responsibility is also starkly different. Bayrou was not an MEP at the time of the misconduct, whereas Le Pen held that role from 2004 onward, and to top it all off, her personal secretary, Catherine Griset, was the benefactor of a multi-hundred thousand euro fictitious contract.

The court placed particular emphasis on the systematic and premeditated nature of the crime, with Le Pen at its core. Email exchanges revealed in court leave little ambiguity: in one, an FN MEP warned that "what Marine is asking us to do is equivalent to signing off on fake jobs." In another, the party's then-treasurer spelled out the logic behind the scheme with chilling clarity: "We will only get through this if we make significant savings thanks to the European Parliament."

Despite these sharp contrasts, some still argue that the severity of the decision is disproportionate. So, what does the law say? Marine Le Pen was convicted under Article 432-17 of the French Penal Code, which targets the misuse of public funds by elected officials. Alongside prison and financial penalties, this article allows for additional sanctions, including the suspension of civic rights under Article 131-26 - among them, the right to run for public office. Since the 2016 "Loi Sapin II" reform, ineligibility has become automatic in cases involving breaches of public integrity. But because Le Pen's offenses date back to between 2004 and 2016, before the reform came into effect, hence the court was required to justify any such sanction. And it did: while Marine Le Pen may finish her term of office as an MP, she is banned from standing in an election (MP, President ...) for 5 years.

What makes this decision especially significant, however, is not the ineligibility itself - but the fact that it was applied immediately. Under French criminal law, sentences typically take effect only once all appeals have been exhausted. Immediate enforcement is an exception, used sparingly and only under strict conditions: when there is a risk of reoffending, or when delaying enforcement would undermine the purpose of the sentence. In Marine Le Pen's case, the judges argued both were the case. They pointed to Le Pen's posture during the trial - her firm denial of wrongdoing and her display of defiance - as signs that she might repeat such offenses, especially in the context of a high-stakes presidential campaign. They also warned that if enforcement were delayed, Le Pen could still run for president in 2027, and if elected, gain immunity - rendering the entire sanction meaningless. To avoid that scenario, and to preserve the integrity of the democratic process, the court took the rare step of making her ineligibility immediately effective.

Marine Le Pen was appalled. As the verdict was read, Marine Le Pen left the courtroom without a word - but by that evening, she was already shaping the public narrative. Speaking on television, she cast herself as a political victim, denouncing the ruling as a "democratic denial" aimed at blocking her path to the presidency. France, she claimed, once the proud home of human rights, was now sinking into "authoritarian tactics."

In the days that followed, Le Pen doubled down on social media, accusing "the system" of dropping the "nuclear bomb" just as she was poised to win. She even went so far as to question how a judiciary that claims to defend figures like Alexei Navalny could turn on her. At a political rally soon after, she went even further: she explicitly compared herself to Martin Luther King Jr., citing his words and presenting her movement as one of peaceful resistance against an unjust regime.

Will this verdict compromise her or her parties' chances for 2027? It is still too early to measure the full impact of Marine Le Pen's conviction. A poll by ELABE, published on the day of the verdict, shows that 42% of French people were satisfied with the decision. Another 29% were dissatisfied, and 29% indifferent. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they believed immediate ineligibility in cases of public fund misuse was justified. Another survey by Public Sénat, released on April 29, suggests the verdict has little effect on voting intentions. If Le Pen were to run for president in 2027, 32% of voters would still support her. "The conviction changes absolutely nothing about the National Rally's considerable lead," said Gaël Sliman, president of the Odoxa institute. All we know, for now, the case seems unlikely to weaken her. On the contrary, it could even reinforce her image as a political martyr.

What now? The Le Pen conviction has revived public debate on whether courts can be trusted to remain impartial when making decisions that carry such political weight - calling out what Jordan Bardella, Marine's protégé, described as a "tyranny of judges." What's striking, however, is how many mainstream politicians and media commentators have echoed this framing, treating the ruling as inherently political and seeming to forget - perhaps deliberately - that magistrates can, and do, judge based on the law.

However, the facts outlined above suggest that, in this case, the severity of the ruling fits the crime. This was a deep, repeated misuse of public money, far beyond the misconduct seen in previous cases involving European parliamentarians.

Now, as Marine Le Pen awaits the outcome of her appeal, expected in mid-2026, the National Rally is preparing for all scenarios. Should her ineligibility be upheld, Le Pen has indicated that party president Jordan Bardella would step in as the presidential candidate. Bardella confirmed he is ready to run.