Marine Le Pen has been barred from running for public office for five years, meaning she would not be able to run in the 2027 French presidential election
She was found guilty of embezzling European funds to finance her French far-right National Rally (RN) party.
This means she is barred from running in the 2027 French presidential election race.
She has also been given a four-year prison sentence, of which two will be suspended. The other two can be spent with an electronic tag rather than in custody.
Le Pen has also been given a €100,000 (£82,635) fine.
She will very likely appeal the jail sentence, so this sentence will not apply now.
Le Pen expected the guilty sentence – but not this five-year ban.
She left the courtroom before the judge has finished handing down details of the sentence.
Massive implications for Le Pen, her party and for French democracy.
After a few tense hours we have a definitive verdict and sentence – and it is the worst Marine Le Pen could have hoped for.
She expected to be convicted, but the key question was the sentence. It is a five-year period of ineligibility which is to be carried out straight away.
What this means is Le Pen cannot run in the next 2027 election – barring some legal twist of which I am completely unaware of.
This of course is an earthquake. It has massive implications for her, her party and French democracy.
Some of her opponents said they had hoped she didn’t get this ineligibility – they said she is someone they need to fight at the ballot box, not through the judicial system.
But there it is. Le Pen is out of the race and she is a very angry woman – we saw her leaving the courtroom earlier with a granite-like face.
Reacting to the conviction, her lawyer says “it’s a blow to democracy” and she intends to appeal
Reactions have continued to trail the judgment.
France’s constitutional body calls for calm in response to today’s ruling.
France’s High Council of the Judiciary, a constitutional body formed to ensure judicial independence, has released a statement expressing concern at the reactions to today’s verdict.
Members expressed concern about “the virulent reactions” to the ruling, saying they are likely to seriously call into question the independence of the judiciary.
Legal proceedings must take place in a “calm atmosphere” and threats personally targeting the judge in charge of the case cannot be accepted in a democratic society, the statement continues.
It concludes by calling for moderation in the comments made about today’s proceedings.
A leading member of National Rally tells the BBC that today’s verdict is “absolutely incredible” and “against all principles of law”.
Bruno Gollnisch is a former Member of the European Parliament for the party and a current member of the national council of Le Pen’s National Rally.
He’s also one of more than 20 members or former members of RN convicted today for misusing EU funds for party affairs.
“I think it’s absolutely incredible. I think this judgement is against all principles of law and the separation of power at the basis of our constitutions,” he tells BBC Newshour.
Gollnisch describes the conviction as “an infringement on democracy” and warns that there would be “increasing anger in the people”.
He adds that the party “would survive anyway” but that “it will ask for revenge”, and that the use of money was “perfectly natural and the common practice in the European Parliament”.
Billionaire Elon Musk has weighed in on Le Pen’s sentencing on social media, calling it a political abuse of the legal system.
“This will backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump,” he says in another post, referencing the US president’s conviction for falsifying business records relating to a payment made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
Musk had publicly campaigned for Le Pen and the RN party on his social media platform X.
Similarly, former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro has also described the ruling as “left-wing judicial activism” in comments reported by the Reuters news agency.
In 2023, Bolsonaro was barred from public office until 2030 for abuse of power ahead of the 2022 elections, when he summoned ambassadors to attack the legitimacy of Brazil’s voting system.
