PARIS (AP) — The trial of Marine Le Pen ends with one key question: Will France’s leading far-right figure be able to enter the next presidential race?
Defense lawyers will speak for the last time on Wednesday at the trial in Paris on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds.
The court in Paris is expected to rule in the spring of next year. It could disqualify Le Pen from holding public office if it finds her guilty. That could throw her political future into disarray and upend the election race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, scheduled for 2027.
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Le Pen’s National Rally party and 25 of its officials, including her, are accused of using money intended for European Union parliamentary assistants to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016 , which broke the rules of the 27-nation bloc. The National Rally was called the National Front at the time.
Le Pen and other co-defendants denied wrongdoing.
Paris prosecutors have demanded a two-year prison sentence for Le Pen. Additionally, they asked for a five-year non-election period to allow her to run for office “with immediate effect” – regardless of whether she appeals or not.
Such a verdict would be the worst-case scenario for Le Pen.
A leading candidate for president
For more than a decade, Le Pen has been working to make her party more mainstream, toning down its extremist streak and thus increasing its appeal to voters.
She has already positioned herself as a candidate to succeed Macron, after coming second in 2017 and 2022.
But the process could prove to be a major and potentially decisive hurdle.
Le Pen pleaded not guilty. However, she appeared to be anticipating a guilty verdict in recent weeks, telling the three-judge jury: “I feel like we have failed to convince you.”
Le Pen had a strong presence in the courtroom. Outside the courtroom, she has repeatedly expressed her irritation at the accusations, which she believes are unfounded.
One measure of the potential seriousness of the case for Le Pen is the time and energy she devoted to the hearings. She often lingered late into the night as the pithy courtroom debates over the role and financing of parliamentary assistants dragged on.
Le Pen argued that all the aides’ work was justified and beyond expectations. She said their missions had to be adapted to the different activities of the Members of the European Parliament, including some highly political tasks related to the party.
Prosecutors denounce Le Pen’s central role
Prosecutors spoke of the “unprecedented” dimension of the alleged embezzlement and its “organized, maximised, systemic and systematic nature.”
They alleged that Le Pen was at the center of what they called a “system” for her party to “save money at the expense of the European Parliament.”
They also said some of the high-paying jobs helped finance the “comfortable lifestyle” of Le Pen’s family and friends.
“They have turned the European Parliament into their cash cow,” said prosecutor Louise Neyton. “If Parliament had not sounded the alarm, they would have continued.”
“The only thing they regret is that they were arrested!”
EU money was used to pay her bodyguard
Hearings revealed that some of the EU money was used to pay Le Pen’s bodyguard – who was previously her father’s bodyguard – and her personal assistant.
Le Pen’s sister Yann is also accused of being paid as an EU parliamentary assistant when she was instead responsible for organizing the party’s major events.
Others worked as assistants to party officials with whom they had no employment contract.
The verdict could weigh on French political life
Prosecutor Nicolas Barret acknowledged that a verdict that makes Le Pen ineligible for public office “is not without consequences, of course for the convicted, but also for public and democratic life in France.”
Yet the judicial authority “only takes into account fraudulent behavior and is not the cause of the situation,” he emphasized.
Prosecutors sought a guilty verdict for all of Le Pen’s co-defendants, including various sentences of up to a year in prison and a 2 million euro fine for the party.
A possible appeal could lead to a new trial for the case in 2026 – just before the next presidential race.
