Trump came back from a criminal conviction to reach the highest political office - Le Pen will attempt a similar feat
Can Marine Le Pen’s political career survive today’s Paris criminal court ruling barring her from running for public office for five years for embezzling European Parliament funds?
The odds are against it. But one thing is sure: she use every political trick to discredit the legal system that found her guilty, the European institutions that her far-right National Rally (RN) party defrauded, and the wider establishment that populists around the world despise.
Le Pen’s immediate task is to lodge an appeal against the ruling so she can run in the 2027 French presidential elections.
That will be difficult: the three judges in the court panel not only found her, eight other current or former MEPs and 12 former assistants, guilty of misusing €4.1m (£3.4m) in public funds.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament of the Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, looks on as she arrives for the verdict of her trial alongside 24 other defendants (party officials and employees, former lawmakers and parliamentary assistants) and the RN party itself, over accusations of misappropriation of European Union funds, at the courthouse in Paris, France, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arriving for the verdict of her trial (Photo: Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters)
But citing the gravity of her crimes, they took the unusual step of applying the sentence immediately – regardless of whether she appeals.
The judges said that between 2004 and 2016, she was “at the heart” of a system that used the parliament’s funds for her national party, rather than support her role in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Le Pen was also fined €100,000 (£83,635) and handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended and two with an electronic arm tag.
Sensing the way the wind was blowing, Le Pen flounced out of the courtroom before the sentence was pronounced, her face like thunder.
In the unlikely event Le Pen wins her appeal to the Constitutional Council, the legal process could drag on too long for her get back into the race.
But that has not stopped her allies from following the populist playbook in response to the ruling: blaming the system.
(FILES) President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen (L) speaks to French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) RN party's President and lead MEP Jordan Bardella during the French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) RN party's parliamentary seminar at the French National Assembly in Paris on September 14, 2024. A French court on March 31, 2025 sentenced far-right leader Marine Le Pen to a five-year ban on running for office with immediate effect, throwing into doubt her bid to stand for president in 2027. The judge also gave her a four-year prison term, which is to be served with an electronic tag, drawing immediate criticism from her party and other far-right leaders. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Marine Le Pen (L) speaks to French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) RN party president and lead MEP Jordan Bardella in the French National Assembly (Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP)
Her protégé, Jordan Bardella, who is the president of the RN, blasted the judges, saying “It is not only Marine Le Pen who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed.”
Other populists joined in. Her far-right niece, Marion Maréchal, who split from the RN, offered whole-hearted support, as did the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) party, and the former leader of the conservative Republicans (LR), Eric Ciotti.
She was also backed by populists around the world, from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to Hungary’s authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, alon with Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders – and, inevitably, Elon Musk.
There has been no response yet, however, from the man who set the template for brushing off legal woes to stage a political comeback: Donald Trump.
The former reality TV host was twice impeached, given four criminal indictments, and last May became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes over a hush money scheme. Not to mention his role in fomenting a coup on January 6, 2021.
Trump brazenly dismissed the many charges against him as a political witch-hunt. It worked: last November, voters forgave him, and he was re-elected president.
Le Pen will try that too, hoping that she will be allowed back in the race. She will claim that her message was seen as too dangerous for the elites, who used unfair legal means to silence her. But she will struggle to re-establish her authority. She has no Plan B if her appeals fail.
Le Pen will also face party challenges. The RN has a comfortable polling lead, and she could be replaced. Jordan Bardella is only 29, but he is widely seen as a fresh face, untarnished by legal entanglements (Le Pen is also tainted by association with her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the crude, xenophobic founder of her party).
In 2004, Le Pen, just emerging as a political figure, memorably railed on television against corruption and misappropriation of public funds, saying, “The French are fed up with seeing elected officials embezzling money.”
She will not hesitate to take the opposite position now – but it may not be enough to save her.