Nationalist Le Pen Barred From 2027 French Election

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s conservative Rassemblement National party and the frontrunner in the nation’s 2027 presidential election, has been barred from running for office for the next five years after a trial for the misappropriation of public funds. Le Pen has also been sentenced to face a large 100,000 euro fine and four years of imprisonment, though the latter will consist of two years of house arrest and two years of a suspended sentence.

The trial stemmed from Le Pen’s role as a member of the European Parliament, when she employed aides who the court alleged were working for her party rather than for the European Parliament. The court explicitly stated that none of the funds were used for personal gain or enrichment by Le Pen.

Much as with last year’s Trump trial, Le Pen’s trial has been politically charged. Le Pen, and the increasingly popular RN (which won 40 percent of vote in last year’s parliamentary elections and is the largest party in France’s parliament), are the bête noire of France’s political establishment, and many within that establishment have viewed the trial as a means of preventing Le Pen from winning the 2027 presidential race, in which Le Pen was the clear frontrunner.

Within France, the verdict has been criticized by some of those usually hostile to Le Pen, most notably by Jean-Luc Mélonchon, the leader of France’s hard-left La France Insoumise party, one of the chief rivals of Le Pen’s RN. “The choice to dismiss an elected official should only belong to the people,” Mélonchon commented on the verdict.

Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the establishment-right La Droite Républicaine group in the French parliament, also condemned the ruling, stating that it would “weigh very heavily on the functioning of our democracy.” 

Various populist leaders from around Europe, from Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Italy’s Matteo Salvini have responded to the verdict, with messages in strong support of Le Pen.