Marine Le Pen can be banned from the France elections if he is convicted of embezzlement

Marine Le Pen, the French -followed French leader, tried three times to become president. Now, even as her popularity increases, she may prevent her from participating in elections to lead France if she is convicted of embezzlement on Monday.

Such a ruling, out of certainty, was equal to Mrs. Le Pen with “political death” and “a very violent attack on the will of the people.” This will ignite a major political storm at a time when the Fifth French Republic has increased, increasingly dysfunctional.

On the one hand, the principle stands, as Nicholas Barrett, one of the prosecutors, was placed in the closing arguments last year, “We are not here in a political but legal arena, and the law applies to everyone.”

On the other hand, the fear, which was expressed by some prominent politicians, lies that the embargo will undermine French democracy by feeding suspicion that it is deviant against the growing forces of the difficult right.

“Madame Le Pen must be in the ballot box, not elsewhere.” Books on x In November. He is now the Minister of Justice.

Mrs. Le Pen, 56 years old, has Her anti -immigrant party went from its anti -Semitic roots towards The main current. The party, whose name has changed from the National Front to the National Rally, is now the largest one party in the National Assembly with 123 seats.

Prosecutors representatives accused Mrs. Le Pen and other members of the National Assembly of embezzlement about $ 4.8 million in European Union funds, mainly through the non -attendance functions in the European Parliament for “assistant” purchases, who were rare there and worked as party employees.

Mrs. Le Pen denied these charges.

Her lawyers argue that the 2016 law, through which it can automatically run for positions was not present at the time of the alleged plan, and that the persons concerned were political assistants, not European Parliament employees. Mrs. Le Pen was a member of that association from 2004 to 2017.

Request for the prosecution, led by Mr. Barrett and Louise Knighton, five years A penalty for Mrs. Le Pen, with three of these commentators; 300,000 euros, or 325,000 dollars, fine; And prohibited a period of five years with an immediate impact on the candidacy for public positions.

Mrs. Knighton said last year that the goal of Mrs. Le Pen and her accused of participating “were frankly developed, to turn the European Parliament into a cash cow.”

Even if Mrs. Le Pen is convicted, judges can relinquish any ban on candidacy for positions.

However, if it is imposed, the lack of eligibility will exclude it from the 2027 presidential elections in which President Emmanuel Macron cannot nominate, which is the middle, because it is limited. Mrs. Le Pen ran in 2012, 2017 and 2022, steadily increasing her share of voting to 41.45 percent.

The ruling on the inability to be resumed against Mrs. Le Pen. But the appeal is slow, and it is clear that the new trial will take place before the 2027 elections, or that the prosecution issue will be canceled.

The National Assembly was hesitant to predict the results of the potential ban. The natural successor of Luban is Jordan Bartella, 29, and she is a soft, indispensable reserve, which Ms. Le Pen said will be the head of her ministers if she is president.

When he was asked in a recent television interview whether he would run for the presidency, Mrs. Le Pen, Mr. Bartella, was asked: “You will not be unqualified, so I do not ask myself the question.”

With anti -immigrant forces in Europe, which is now encouraged by the Trump administration, Mrs. Le Pen is widely considered a strong candidate, and perhaps even the favorite candidate, to vote in 2027, if qualified.

Mr. Macron did not build strong The party, so its departure will create a vacuum that more than half of the men of men-including Mr. Darmanin and former Prime Minister Gabriel Atal-are defending to fill their presidential ambitions.

The sudden, chaotic parliamentary elections in the past year, and four prime ministers in the past 15 months, and a parliament that has been hated from its sections, gave the impression of pressure on the fifth republic to provide coherent judgment.

The exclusion of Mrs. Le Pen will inevitably lead to the intensification of criticism from senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, for a supposed campaign by European countries to strangle the extreme right and slander to democracy in the name of its saving.

Hungarian and Italian democracies have handed over the current leaders, or descended from the far right.

But of course, Europe has a gut of the fragility of democratic institutions, and how it destroyed by the extremely authoritarian right -wing movements not long ago, which led to the bloodbath.

Jean -Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front and the father of Mrs. Le Pen, has repeatedly described the Holocaust as “details” of history. I finally expelled him from the party. Mr. Le Pen died In January.

If the ruling is inconsistent with Mrs. Le Pen, then the 2027 presidential elections will be the first in almost 40 years that had no pen in voting.

Aurélien PREDEREN contributed to the reports.