The French Justice sentences Marine Le Pen to three years in prison and 15 months of disqualification

The Paris Court of Appeal has sentenced the leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, to three years in prison and 15 months of disqualification this Tuesday for embezzlement of funds, which opens the door for her to run in the presidential elections in April 2027.

Of the three years in prison, two have been suspended and one will have to spend it under house arrest and wearing an electronic bracelet, a condition that the far-right politician hoped to avoid. Le Pen herself had indicated that, if the court adopted this measure, she would be willing to stay out of the picture.

Furthermore, of the total of 45 months of disqualification that has been imposed on him, 30 have also been suspended, while Justice considers that the 15 months since his sentence in March have already been served, according to information from the newspaper ‘Le Figaro’. This is what would facilitate, for legal purposes, their attendance for the fourth consecutive time in this electoral process.

The Court of Appeals of Paris, before which Le Pen, 57, had appealed the previous ruling of a court in the French capital, was scheduled to issue its verdict this Tuesday against Le Pen for a case of embezzlement of European funds.

Along with her, eight other former MEPs from her party were then convicted for their links to a network of false parliamentary assistants through which they diverted European Union funds worth 2.9 million euros.

She was then sentenced to four years in prison, two of them firm and to be served under supervised release, to pay a fine of 100,000 euros, and five years of disqualification, sentences similar to those received by the other eight convicted elected officials.

The National Group had already planned the replacement with its current president, Jordan Bardella, an MEP since 2019 and considered the natural successor of Le Pen whom he could choose as minister if he wins the elections, as many in France are already anticipating. Bardella himself has already warned in the past that it is not Le Pen that is “unjustly condemned”, but that “it is French democracy that is being executed.”