Importance Score: 45 / 100 🔵
Marine Le Pen said she will not “submit” to a court’s decision after it barred her from running for office. Speaking on French TV channel TF1, Le Pen blasted the “political” ruling, which bans her from running in the 2027 presidential election.
The National Rally (RN) leader was given a four-year jail sentence – two of which to be served under house arrest with the remaining sentence suspended – after being found guilty of embezzling EU funds. Unlike the electoral ban, which is effective immediately, the four-year sentence will not start until Le Pen has exhausted her appeals.
The 56-year-old repeated that she was “innocent”. She said she would never “submit” to the decision and would appeal the sentence in response to a question asking if RN president Jordan Bardella could appoint her French prime minister if he beat Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 presidential race.
“Let’s be clear, I am eliminated but in reality it’s millions of French people whose voices have been eliminated,” she told TF1, adding the court “sought to deliberately block me”.
Finishing her bombshell interview, she added that she was not “demoralised”, but felt “scandalised by the decision”. “I feel indignant”, she said.
Earlier today, the judge handed down guilty verdicts for embezzling public funds to eight other current or former members of RN who, like her, had served as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
Also convicted were 12 other people who had served as parliamentary aides for Ms Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.
The judge said Ms Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” her party used to siphon off EU parliament money.
While the judge noted that Ms Le Pen and the other co-defendants did not enrich themselves personally, the ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” that deceived the parliament and voters.