Marine Le Pen (C), leader of the parliamentary wing of France’s populist National Rally party arrives at the Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday for the start of a new trial in an effort to get a 2025 conviction for misusing European Parliament funds overturned. Photo by Yoan Valat/EPA
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, launched a legal bid Tuesday to clear her name from an embezzlement conviction for misusing European Parliament funds that sabotaged her presidential ambitions.
The 57-year-old daughter of founding father of the French right, the late Jean-Marie Le Pen, was among 10 fellow party members in court Tuesday to appeal their convictions over a fake jobs scheme via new trials expected to last at least a month, with a decision expected sometime this summer.
Le Pen and the others were found guilty in March of diverting more than $3.4 million of EP funds allotted to hire aides for MEPs between 2004 and 2016 to pay people to work on internal RN party matters in France, rather than for the EP itself.
There was no suggestion Le Pen profited personally from the scheme.
She was sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were suspended, fined $117,000 and banned from running for public office for five years with immediate effect, putting an end to her ambitions to win the presidency in 2027, at what would be her fourth attempt.
Le Pen insists she is innocent of the charges, alleging she is the victim of a political conspiracy, an attempt by the French establishment, including the judiciary, to smear her and prevent her running and winning.
Ahead of the hearing at the Paris Court of Appeal, Le Pen said she was”hopeful” of clearing her name but has recently begun endorsing her protege and party president Jordan Bardella, saying he “can win in my place.”
Bardella said Monday that disqualifying Le Pen from running would be “deeply worrying for democracy,” and ruled himself out despite pulling far stronger polling numbers.
Le Pen is among many voices across the political spectrum calling for the election to be brought forward from 2027 as a way to unlock a political crisis that has seen five prime ministers come and go, some of them more than once, since President Emannuel Macron defeated Le Pen to win a second term in April 2022.
There is a possibility the court could defer her political ban, even if it does not overturn the conviction, allowing her to run pending an appeal in the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court.
Alternatively, the appeal court judges could slash Le Pen’s political ban to two years, allowing her to register as a candidate by the March 2027 deadline.
Negative outcomes could see the court uphold the conviction, leaving the Court as Cassation as her last resort or, worse still, it could increase her sentence for the offenses which carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
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