Re: Ça Chauffe! - Turmoil in France
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FACTBOX: What is known about Marine Le Pen’s sentence
In accordance with the court decision, Marine Le Pen will have to wear an electronic bracelet for two of the four years
PARIS, March 31. /TASS/. Head of the parliamentary faction of the National Rally Party Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to four years in prison and a five-year ban on running for office after being found guilty of embezzling EU funds.
TASS has assembled the main facts about the French politician's case.
The sentence
- Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison and is barred from running for political office for five years.
- In accordance with the court decision, Le Pen will have to wear an electronic bracelet for two of the four years.
- She was also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 euros.
- According to the BFMTV television channel, due to the immediate disenfranchisement, Le Pen will not be able to run in the French presidential election in 2027.
About the case
- The investigation into embezzlement began in 2014.
- The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) then demanded that Le Pen reimburse 339,000 euros.
- The politician was accused of paying the salaries of the head of her office Catherine Grisez and security guard Thierry Legier from the funds of the European Parliament, while they were employed by her party.
- According to the investigation, Le Pen allegedly orchestrated a financial scheme whereby EU funds were embezzled under the guise of paying non-existent assistants in the European Parliament.
- In addition to Le Pen, also found guilty were the mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot and the former vice-chairman of the National Rally Bruno Gollnisch.
- The prosecutor's office called for giving Le Pen five years in prison and depriving her of her voting rights for the same period.
Le Pen's position
- Le Pen rejected the charges brought against her. During one of the court hearings, she accused the prosecutor of "attempting to destroy the party."
- The day before the verdict was announced, the newspaper La Tribune du Dimanche published a short comment by the politician, in which she expressed hope that it would not come to depriving her of the right to be elected and hold elective office.
Reaction in France
- The verdict is a hit not only against Le Pen, but also against French democracy as a whole, said Jordan Bardella, head of the National Rally party.
Reaction from Russia
- The Kremlin considers the situation around Le Pen's verdict to be the internal affair of France. But in general, it sees democracy decaying in Europe, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said answering a question from TASS.
- The verdict against the head of the parliamentary faction of the National Rally party shows the "agony of liberal democracy," Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, told TASS.
- France is plunging into "stormy uncharted waters" and may face protests similar to those in Romania after presidential candidate Calin Georgescu was barred from running, former Austrian Foreign Minister and head of the G.O.R.K.I. center at St. Petersburg State University Karin Kneissl said.
- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also spoke out in support of Le Pen.
Arnaud Bertrand, who is a very reliable commentator, lays out some more of the background to this although, and with fair reasoning, how Cristine Lagarde can get caught embezzling funds but attain the position of ECB chair? Well, I think we can guess how
"I'm seeing many terrible takes on Le Pen by people who obviously don't know the first thing about what happened, so here's a summary that's as neutral as I could make it.
Consider reading it first before arguing one way or another.
After a legal saga that dragged on since 2015, a French court finally delivered its verdict in what's known as the "European Parliament Assistants Case" against Marine Le Pen and her Rassemblement National colleagues.
They found Le Pen guilty of misappropriation of public funds and handed her what can only be described as a political death sentence: 4 years prison (2 years suspended, 2 years at home under electronic monitoring), a €100,000 fine, and most devastatingly, 5 years of ineligibility for public office with immediate execution.
That last part is absolutely crucial because it means she can't run for president in 2027, appeal or no appeal.
The whole case centers on the fact that between 2004 and 2016, FN members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were using their EU parliamentary assistant allowances to pay people who were actually working for the party rather than on EU business.
At the European parliament, each MEP gets around €23,392 monthly to hire assistants, and the FN/RN created a system to funnel that money into party operations, which is illegal.
Tellingly, many of these "assistants" were on both the European Parliament payroll AND the party's organizational chart, and some never even met the MEPs they supposedly worked for.
The court determined the amount diverted totaled €2.9 million.
The investigation began all the way back in 2015 when European Parliament president Martin Schulz referred the matter to the European Anti-Fraud Office after noticing that 20 of the 24 FN parliamentary assistants appeared on the party's organizational chart.
The French justice system opened their formal investigation in 2016, and the case involved 27 defendants - nine former FN/RN MEPs including Le Pen herself, twelve parliamentary assistants, four other FN/RN officials, and the party itself as a legal entity.
Le Pen wasn't the only one who got convicted. The Rassemblement National party itself got hit with a €2 million fine. Eight other former MEPs were all convicted, alongside twelve parliamentary assistants and three RN officials.
The prosecution's case was pretty straightforward: the party created a systematic scheme to divest EU funds for party benefit. They had mountains of evidence showing assistants working primarily or exclusively for the party while being paid by the European Parliament.
The operation wasn't just a one-off - it was a years-long scheme that was centrally managed by the party leadership.
On the defense side, they insist all assistants performed "real work" (which is true, just not the work they were paid for, which is the whole point), claim political persecution and argue there was no personal enrichment (which is correct).
They also compare the way they're treated to that of the MoDem party—the party of current Prime Minister François Bayrou—which faced similar charges. They argue their case demonstrates a double standard in French justice, since MoDem officials received much lighter sentences for similar offenses.
This is somewhat correct given that members of both parties were found guilty of essentially the same crime—using European Parliament funds to pay for party work.
However, the scale and nature of the operations were quite different. The RN operation involved €2.9 million compared to MoDem's €204,000. The RN maintained their system for 12 years across 46 contracts, while MoDem's operation lasted for a shorter period with 10 contracts. Perhaps most importantly, MoDem officials stopped the practice voluntarily without legal intervention, while the RN only ceased when the European Parliament started investigating.
Still, the stark difference in sentencing, particularly regarding immediate ineligibility, has become a big controversy, with many questioning whether the punishment truly fits the crime or reflects political considerations about keeping Le Pen out of the 2027 presidential race.
Because that's what the sentence means: Le Pen can't run for office during 5 years, which blocks her from the 2027 presidential election unless her appeal succeeds - and French appeals can take years.
Worth mentioning, according to French law, for the offense of misappropriation of public funds, ineligibility is actually mandatory. Judges only have discretion to make exceptions with a specially motivated decision.
However, whether to make that ineligibility immediately enforceable during appeals is a separate decision, and judges have complete discretion on this. This is the truly controversial part, the judges in Le Pen's case could have decided to not apply the ineligibility immediately and wait for the appeal process to conclude before enforcing it.
The timing of this verdict, coming after Le Pen's strong showing in recent elections and just two years before a presidential contest she was widely favored to win, inevitably raises questions about political motivation.
Yet we shouldn't ignore the substance either: a systematic scheme to divert public funds did occur. The French justice system has determined that such actions render someone unfit for public office, at least temporarily.
Whether voters would have reached the same conclusion if Le Pen had been allowed to run in 2027 is a question we'll probably never get an answer for—and therein lies perhaps the most profound controversy of all.
At heart this case is a question of who's sovereign in France: judges interpreting laws, or voters who may be willing to overlook certain transgressions.
6:37 AM · Apr 1, 2025
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Re: Ça Chauffe! - Turmoil in France
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