The Prosecutor’s Office requested this Wednesday the conviction of Marine Le Pen in the trial for the alleged irregular use by her party of parliamentary assistants paid by the European Parliament and that a penalty be imposed that includes disqualification, which could prevent her from being a candidate in the next French presidential elections in 2027.
Louise Neyton and Nicolas Barret, the two prosecutors prosecuting this process that began on September 30 before the Paris Correctional Court, requested that the leader of the French extreme right be convicted of embezzlement of public funds and for being an accomplice to that same crime.
They specifically claimed for her a sentence of five years in prison, three exempt from compliance, 300,000 euros fine and five years of disqualification.
The representatives of the Public Ministry also They asked for the condemnation of the National Front (FN) as a legal entity and the other 26 convicted in this process for having improperly used European Parliament money in favor of far-right groups through the contracts of parliamentary assistants.
In the event that the court’s judges decide to disqualify Le Pen from holding public office in the sentence expected at the beginning of 2025, it is assumed that she will appeal, which in principle The execution of the sentence should be suspended until there is a final ruling.
But the Prosecutor’s Office claimed that all the accused the execution of the disqualification penalties is immediately imposed on them for public office, which would be a serious obstacle to Le Pen’s political ambitions.
Because the question is whether that eventual disqualification would be enforceable between now and the candidacies for the next presidential elections have to be formalized which, if there are no changes – such as an unlikely resignation by Macron before the end of his mandate – should be held in the spring of 2027.
In her first reaction to the request before the media, Marine Le Pen denounced the will of the Prosecutor’s Office of depriving her of the possibility of standing for election and deprive the French “of being able to vote for whoever they want.
“The only thing that interests the Prosecutor’s Office is ask for Marine’s exclusion from politics” and “ruin” his partyhe accused. The leader of the extreme right said that she hoped that the court would not attend to those demands from the Public Ministry.
In his request, Neyton emphasized the unprecedented nature of the events that have led to this process. “because of its magnitude, its duration and, above all, because of its organized, optimized, systemic and systematic nature”, that led to “a serious and lasting attack on the rules of the democratic game (…) and on the transparency of politics.”
According to the prosecutor, the FN launched “an organized system” with the goal of “serving the interests of the party” to save money with parliamentary assistants at a time when he was going through “a particularly tense financial situation.”
Furthermore, he pointed out that there was “a direct personal interest” on the part of the top leaders of the party, because the embezzlement allowed them to maintain “a comfortable lifestyle” and because that money helped them consolidate, first around Jean-Marie Le Pen, and then when his daughter Marine took over the training, a team with which to carry out “his personal political ambition.” That is why he considered that it is necessary “an exemplary response” for her and the other defendants.
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