The Paris prosecutor’s office requested the conviction of the leader of the National Rally (AN), Marine Le Pen, for which They demand five years in prison and ban from all public office for crimes of embezzlement of European Union Fundaccusations that the far-right politician denied during legal proceedings. Disqualification could prevent him from running for the Elysée in the French presidential elections of 2027.
Louise Neyton and Nicolas Barret, the two prosecutors who are continuing this procedure which began on September 30 before the Paris criminal court, requested that the leader of the French far right be found guilty of embezzlement of public funds and for being complicit in the same crime.
They specifically demanded a five-year prison sentence for him, three compliance exemptions, 300,000 euros fine and five years 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 the event that the court judges decide to disqualify Le Pen from holding public office in the sentence expected at the beginning of 2025we assume that she will appeal, which in principle The execution of the sentence should be suspended until a final decision is made.
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 – They should be held in spring 2027.
Le Pen’s reaction
In her first reaction to the accusation in front of the media, Marine Le Pen denounced the desire of the prosecution to deprive her of the possibility of running in the elections. and deprive the French “of being able to vote for whoever they want.
“The only thing that interests the prosecution is to request the exclusion of Marine from politics.” and “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” whose objective is to “serve the interests of the party”» to save money from parliamentary assistants at a time when he 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 he considered that “an exemplary response” is required for her as for the other defendants.
