France's Le Pen defiant after five-year election ban

Paris — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Monday slammed a "political decision" and insisted she had not abandoned hope of standing in presidential elections in 2027 after a court handed her a five-year ban on running for office.

 

The verdict as part of a conviction for creating fake jobs at the EU parliament on behalf of her National Rally (RN) party -- charges she vehemently denied -- stunned Le Pen as the judge ordered the ban come into force with immediate effect.

 

If it stands, this would mean she would be unable to launch a fourth campaign to capture the Elysee, where analysts believe she had her best-ever chance of becoming president.

 

In a febrile international climate, the verdict was condemned by the Kremlin, billionaire tycoon Elon Musk and hard-right European politicians ranging from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Geert Wilders of the Netherlands.

 

Le Pen was also given a four-year prison term by the Paris court but will not go to jail, with two years of the term suspended and the other two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.

 

She was convicted over a scheme to take advantage of European Parliament expenses to employ assistants who were actually working for her far-right party in France.

 

Twenty-four people -- including Le Pen -- were convicted -- all of them RN party officials or assistants. 

 

‘Reserved for authoritarian regimes' 

 

Le Pen said she would appeal the "political decision", and vowed that in "no way" would she retire from political life, in a combative interview with the commercial French television network TF1.

 

"I'm not going to let myself be eliminated like this. I'm going to pursue whatever legal avenues I can. There is a small path. It's certainly narrow, but it exists," she said.

 

She said that the appeal would be lodged "as quickly as possible" and said that the judiciary should "get a move on" so it is heard in time.

 

Describing herself as the "favourite" to win the 2027 presidential elections, Le Pen characterised the judge who delivered the verdict as saying: "'I do not want Marine Le Pen elected'" and lashed out at "'practices we thought were for authoritarian regimes".

 

"I am going to appeal because I am innocent," Le Pen said, while acknowledging that as things stood now "I am eliminated" from the presidential race.

 

‘At the ballot box' 

 

Le Pen dramatically left the courtroom before the judge announced the prison sentence, and a crisis meeting was convened at the party's Paris headquarters.

 

With her RN emerging as the single largest party in France's parliament after the 2024 legislative elections, polls predicted Le Pen would easily top the first round of voting in 2027 and make the second round two-candidate run-off.

 

Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron cannot run in that election because of a constitutional two-term limit.

 

"It's disgraceful! They've destroyed her," Jacqueline Bossuyt, 78, said in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, the far-right's stronghold.

 

The reaction from Moscow was swift, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: "More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms."

 

Tesla's billionaire owner Musk, who has backed a far-right party in Germany and plays a major role in Trump's administration, said the move would "backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump".

 

US President Donald Trump compared Le Pen's conviction to his own legal battles, telling reporters Monday: "She was banned from running for five years and she was the leading candidate. That sounds like this country."

 

There was also unease within the political mainstream in France, with the leader of MPs in parliament of the right-wing Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez, saying "political debates should be decided at the ballot box".

 

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was meanwhile "troubled" by the verdict, a person close to him told AFP, asking not to be named.

 

‘Fictitious' posts' 

 

If Le Pen is unable to run in 2027, her backup plan is her 29-year-old protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, who is not under investigation in the case.

 

But there are doubts even within the RN over whether Bardella has the experience needed.

 

Le Pen took over the then-National Front (FN) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and set about de-toxifying its image with voters. Her father, who died in January, was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments. 

 

During the court case, prosecutors said the RN used the 21,000-euro ($23,000) monthly EU parliament allowance to pay staff in France, hiding the scheme behind "fictitious" posts in the European legislature's offices.

 

"It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their MEP had not assigned them any tasks," said the judge.