The prosecution requested this Wednesday the conviction of Marine Le Pen to the trial for alleged irregular use by his party of parliamentary assistants paid by the European Parliament and that a sentence be imposed which includes disqualificationwhich could prevent him from running for the Elysée in 2027.
Louise Neyton and Nicolas Barret, the two prosecutors in charge of the case in this trial which began on September 30 before the Paris Criminal Court, They demanded that the leader of the French far right be found guilty of embezzlement of public funds and for having been complicit in this same crime. They specifically called for a sentence of five years in prison, three years of exemption, 300,000 euros fine and five years of ban. Representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office also requested the conviction of the National Front (FN) as a legal entity and the 26 other accused in this trial for having unduly used the European Parliament’s money in favor of the far-right formation through the contracts of parliamentary assistants.
In case the judges decide to impose Le Pen ban from holding public office with sentence expected in early 2025it is assumed that she will appeal, which should in principle suspend the execution of the sentence until a final sentence is rendered. But the prosecution demanded that all defendants be immediately banned from all public office, which would pose a serious obstacle to Le Pen’s political ambitions. Because the question is whether this possible disqualification would be enforceable until the candidacies for the next presidential elections are formalized which, in the absence of changes – such as an improbable resignation of Macron before the end of his mandate – must have place. in spring 2027.
In his first reaction to the request in front of the media, Marine Le Pen denounced the prosecutor’s office’s desire to deprive her of the possibility of running for office and deprive the French “of being able to vote for whoever they want. “The only thing that interests the prosecution is to demand the exclusion of Marine from politics” and to “ruin” his party, he accused. The far-right leader said she hoped the court would not respond to these requests from the prosecution. In his request, Neyton highlighted the unprecedented nature of the events that led to this process “because of its scale, its duration and, above all, its organized, optimized, systemic and systematic character”, which led to “ a serious and lasting attack on the rules of the democratic game (…) and on the transparency of politics.”
According to the prosecutor, the FN launched “an organized system” with the aim of “serving the interests of the party” to save money from parliamentary assistants at a time when it was going through “a particularly tense financial situation”. Furthermore, he stressed that there was “direct personal interest” on the part of the party’s senior leaders, because the embezzlement allowed them to maintain “a comfortable lifestyle” and because this money helped to consolidate, first around Jean-Marie. Le Pen, then when his daughter Marine took over training, a team with which to carry “his personal political ambition”. This is why she considered that “an exemplary response” was necessary for her and for the other defendants.
