French court reduces graft sentence for Marine Le Pen
Under the appeals verdict, the far-right leader may be able to run for president in 2027, though she would have to wear an ankle monitor
Under the appeals verdict, the far-right leader may be able to run for president in 2027, though she would have to wear an ankle monitor. She has previously said she would not stand for election under these conditions. The face of France's far-right, Marine Le Pen, was back in court on Tuesday where an appeals judge upheld her 2025 graft conviction, but lessened her sentence. Le Pen, 57, had been sentenced to a five-year ban from public office last year by a lower court, as well as two years in prison over a fake jobs scam when she was a member of the European Parliament. The Rally (RN) leader then immediately launched an appeal. She told a party rally over the weekend that she was "not afraid" of the coming verdict. Per Tuesday's ruling, her ban on standing in an election has been shortened to 15 months, and her prison term reduced to three years — two suspended and one with an electronic monitor.
That means she could still enter the race for office, but only with an ankle tag. Le Pen had previously said she would not run if sentenced to legal monitoring, and left the courtroom without speaking to journalists. After coming second in France's 2017 and 2022 elections, Le Pen had been hoping for another shot at the presidency in 2027. It remains to be seen if her protege Jordan Bardella will now take her place as the party's main candidate. The DW verdict from the courtroom Paris correspondent Lisa Louis was on hand to witness the scale of the verdict. She said the long queue in front of the courthouse, the old Palais de Justice in central Paris, was an indication of how closely watched the verdict was set to be — in France and abroad.
"The first national and international journalists got here at 5 a.m.," she said. "I arrived two hours later — but was still one of the happy few to get a seat in the courtroom." Noting that Le Pen is in pole position in current opinion polls, Louis reported that even if the ruling does force her to step away from the race for president, "there is a plan B — 30-year-old party head Jordan Bardella is waiting in the wings... And his ratings are even higher than Le Pen's." What was Le Pen convicted of? As a member of what was then called the Front, Le Pen was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017. Alongside some two dozen former far-right staffers, she was found guilty of misappropriating EU funds to pay alleged staffers for jobs that did not really exist.
Prosecutors said she "professionalized" a type of graft first introduced by her father, the late far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, to siphon EU funds. Le Pen, the party, and 10 others appealed their verdicts, with her fellow RN chief Bardella calling the trials "politically motivated." She has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Edited by: Natalie Muller Don't let the algorithm hide the news. If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your Preferred Source on Google by clicking here and hitting the "star" or "preferred" button, so you'll always see our verified news first.
The BriefWire