Leader of the French far-right was sentenced on March 31 by the Paris Court to a penalty of “ineligibility with immediate provisional execution” for misappropriation of the European Parliament by his National Union Party
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, and 11 other convicts of diversion of funds from the European Parliament, will be tried at an appeal from January 13 to February 12, the French justice decided this Monday.
The National Union (RN, far right), its leader, Marine Le Pen, and 11 others, half of which convicted in the first instance, will again be tried for embezzlement of public funds, accused of creating a “system” between 2004 and 2016 to pay for party employees with money from the European parliament. Those involved in the case appealed the sentence.
At a hearing held this Monday, the Paris Court of Appeal established for the beginning of next year – more than a year before the expected date of the French presidential elections – the judgment of the appeal.
In 2015, the European Parliament (PE) alerted the French authorities about the possible fraudulent use of funds from the former National Front Party, later renamed National Union, due to the large number of parliamentary assistant contracts that worked in total or partially for the party between 2004 and 2016.
At the end of November 2024, the French prosecutor had requested the conviction of Marine Le Pen for five years in prison, including a three -year suspended sentence, a fine of 300,000 euros and five years of ineligibility with provisional execution.
The Paris Court estimated that the total damage was 2.9 million euros diverted for more than 11 years, “over three legislatures”, as the RN MEPs made “the European Parliament to pay people who were effectively working for the party” of far right.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was sentenced on March 31 by the Paris Court to a penalty of “ineligibility with immediate provisional execution” for misappropriation of the European Parliament by her National Union Party.
Also the vice president of the RN, Louis Aliot, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which six months of imprisonment, and to three years of ineligibility for embezzlement of public funds. However, the court chose not to apply the penalty immediately.
Although Marine Le Pen keeps her mandate as a deputy for passes, the political consequences of the decision are inescapable: while awaiting a future decision, she will not be able to apply for any election for a period of five years, that is, until after the 2027 presidential elections.
In July, the European Attorney’s Office opened an investigation into the French Union Party, led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, and his far-right allies in Brussels, suspected of various financial irregularities.
Together with its identity and democracy partners (ID) -former right -wing political group the far right of the European Parliament, replaced by the Patriotas Group for Europe, precisely a year ago -the French party is suspected of “improperly spent” over 4.3 million euros between 2019 and 2024.
The suspicion was raised in a report by the European Parliament Department of Financial Affairs, released by various media in early July.
