“The trial of Marine Le Pen reveals the fragility of the notion of the rule of law” | EUROtoday

Ln March 31, 2025, the Paris Criminal Court rendered its first occasion judgment within the case of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front (now National Rally, RN) and acknowledged – particularly – Marine Le Pen responsible of embezzlement and complicity in embezzlement of public funds. The president of the RN is thus sentenced to 4 years in jail, two of that are closed, a fantastic of 100,000 euros and 5 years of ineligibility with provisional execution, that’s to say taking impact instantly, regardless of the choice to enchantment instantly introduced by the individual involved.

This judicial choice constitutes an actual political earthquake to the extent that it dangers making Marine Le Pen’s subsequent candidacy for the presidential election unattainable, main many observers to wonder if three magistrates can legitimately have of their arms the future of a number one political determine and the very configuration of the following main French electoral occasion.

At the tip of an investigation which can final virtually 5 years, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office requires the referral to felony courts of Marine Le Pen and round twenty different defendants. The trial at first occasion begins in Paris on September 30, 2024, lasts a number of weeks and leads to a judgment rendered on March 31, 2025.

Impervious to any consideration of political expediency, the judges first rule on the materiality of the details, contemplating that there was certainly misappropriation of public funds since, between 2004 and 2016, parliamentary assistants have been paid by the European Parliament to hold out political missions in France, by advantage of a apply deemed systematic and arranged. On the private accountability of Marine Le Pen, they consider that as president of the RN and MEP she validated or tolerated these unlawful practices.

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