2025-03-31T13:05:05+00:00
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Shafaq News/ On Monday, a French court ruled that far-right leader Marine Le Pen is ineligible to run for office with immediate effect following her conviction for embezzling public funds.
The court ruled that Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally party - RN (a French far-right political party) had misused European Parliament funds intended for parliamentary aides, instead using them to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016. Prosecutors sought a two-year prison sentence and a five-year ineligibility period for Le Pen. They also requested a €2 million fine for the party and sentences of up to one year in prison for other co-defendants.
France’s Constitutional Council ruled, on March 28, that enforcing the ineligibility sentence immediately was constitutional. The ruling has sparked international reactions, with the Kremlin condemning it as a violation of democratic norms and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expressing solidarity by posting "Je suis Marine!" (I am Marine) on social media.
Le Pen has denied wrongdoing, insisting that charges were politically motivated and aimed at preventing her from running in 2027.
With Le Pen now unable to run in 2027, attention is shifting to her likely successor, Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old who took over leadership of National Rally in 2021.+
France's 2024 elections marked a significant shift in the country’s political landscape, with the RN making substantial gains, securing 143 seats in the 577-member National Assembly—its highest parliamentary representation to date.