A French court on Monday barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years, with immediate effect, for embezzlement — a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.
A French court on Monday barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years, with immediate effect, for embezzlement — a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.
Although Le Pen can appeal the verdict, such a move won’t suspend her ineligibility, which could rule her out of the 2027 presidential race.
The court ruling was a political as well as a judicial temblor for France, hobbling one of the leading contenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term, scheduled to last into 2027. So broad were the political implications that even some of Le Pen’s political opponents reacted by saying that the court had gone too far.
Le Pen herself wasn’t around to hear the chief judge pronounce the sentence that threw her career into a tailspin. By then, she’d already strode out of the courtroom, when the judge first indicated that Le Pen would be barred from office, without saying straight away for how long.
Although Le Pen didn’t immediately comment, her supporters were quick to express disapproval. Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old protégé who could replace her on the ballot in 2027 if she can’t stand, said on X that Le Pen “is being unjustly condemned” and that French democracy “is being executed.”
Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán quickly took to social media to express his support, posting “Je suis Marine!” — I am Marine — on X.
Among political opponents of Le Pen who expressed unease was conservative lawmaker Laurent Wauquiez, who said the court ruling put “a very heavy weight on our democracy.
