Leading French Candidate Marine Le Pen Banned From Holding Public Office for Five Years

Sundance reporting for CTH 

Marine Le Pen in France, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Imran Khan in Pakistan, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Donald Trump in America, Calin Georgescu in Romania.  These are the latest populist candidates targeted by Lawfare in “democratic” nations and blocked from office.  Amid the group, only President Trump defeated the globalist alignment against him.

Marine Le Pen and 24 other officials were accused to paying staff for the National Rally party with EU commission funds intended to pay European Union parliamentary aides, a claimed violation of the European Union regulations.  Le Pen was a representative to the EU and is currently the leading candidate in France.

Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants were not accused of personally benefiting from the EU financial process and denied any wrongdoing as it related to paying staff and parliamentary aides.  However, a French court ruled she did pay for party staff with the wrong funds and her punishment is 2 years of house arrest and a five-year ban from office.

REUTERS – […] The court sentenced Le Pen to two years’ imprisonment under house arrest, but it was the political ramifications of ineligibility that dealt the biggest blow to her foreseeable political future.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of having used money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants denied wrongdoing.

Le Pen has enjoyed growing support

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.

During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate” and disenfranchise her supporters. (more)

VIA AP – […] Although she can appeal the house arrest sentence, which she could ultimately serve while wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, the ban on running for office is “with immediate effect,” independent of whether she files an appeal or not.

An appeal ruling that would overturn the ban could restore her hopes of standing. But with the election just two years away, time is running out and there’s no guarantee that an appeals court would rule more favorably.

[…] Monday’s ruling came amid record ratings in opinion polls for Le Pen, who hoped her decade-long efforts to steer her party towards the mainstream would finally deliver at the next presidential election. (more)