Marine Le Pen will not be able to stand at France’s presidential election after being banned from politics for five years.
Le Pen and dozens of party associates from her Nationally Rally were found guilty yesterday of embezzling EU funds to pay party staff.
She has been sentenced to four years imprisonment, of which two will be house arrest wearing an electronic tracker, and a 100,000 euro fine.
Legal experts have been saying this could occur, but few in France believed it would really happen.
Le Pen cannot appeal the ruling.
The provisional ban is immediate. She can keep her national mandates, namely as an MP, but cannot run for president even if she appeals.
The party’s president, Jordan Bardella, said that Le Pen has been “unjustly condemned” and that French democracy has been “executed”.
The Kremlin also slammed the ruling.
“More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms,” a Kremlin spokesman told reporters in a briefing, when asked about the decision.
Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s Prime Minister has tweeted his support to Marine Le Pen. “Je suis Marine!”, he said on X, after she was banned from French politics.
Orban’s Fidesz party is in an alliance with Ms Le Pen’s National Rally in the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament.
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