A French court on Monday convicted Marine Le Pen, a leader of the country’s right-wing National Rally party, of misappropriating European Union funds to finance the movement. She was disqualified from running in the 2027 presidential election.
Le Pen, along with over 20 other senior party members, faced allegations of employing assistants who were funded by the European Parliament but worked on party-related matters.
In addition to handing Le Pen a five-year ban on running for public office, the judge handed her a four-year prison term, with two years as a suspended sentence and two to be served under house arrest with an electronic tag.
Prosecutors demanded that Le Pen pay a €300,000 ($324,000) fine and serve a five-year prison sentence, as well as receive a disqualification from holding public office for five years. The disqualification is to take immediate effect. Le Pen has said she intends to appeal the ruling.
During last year’s trial, Le Pen insisted that she had committed only “the slightest irregularity.”
National Rally, formerly called National Front, was established by her father, Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died on Jan. 7 at age 96.
Marine succeeded him and expelled dozens of antisemites from the party, including her father, to rehabilitate it and appeal to voters. Marine Le Pen won an unprecedented 41.5% of the vote in the final round of the presidential elections in France, more than double her father’s best showing in 2002.
Marine Le Pen and others within National Rally have defended Israel in its war against Hamas and other proxies that broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.
Many Jews in France vote for National Rally, which seeks to dramatically limit immigration from Muslim countries to France and the footprint of Islam in the public space.
In 2017, Le Pen said that she supported banning Muslim headcovers but that this would require also banning the public wearing of kippot due to constitutional principles on equality. She said this was a “sacrifice” French Jews needed to make to fight radical Islam and antisemitic violence by Muslims, and she has described her party as “the shield” for Jews in this endeavor.
The National Front is also opposed to the slaughter of animals for meat without stunning, which is required for producing both kosher and halal meat, and to the non-medical circumcision of boys, another custom shared by Jews and Muslims.
CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, has boycotted the National Rally, as well as the far-left party France Unbowed of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, an anti-Israel populist who has been accused of antisemitism. Last year, France Unbowed formed a bloc with the Socialist Party, leading many Jews to vote for the National Rally in the legislative election.
Earlier this month, Israel ended its longstanding ban on government contact with the National Rally. Marine Le Pen is widely regarded as an influential figure within the National Rally but its top ranking member is Jordan Bardella, the party’s president.
