Far-right fake jobs trial: French prosecutors request Marine Le Pen be banned from running for public office

French prosecutors demanded, on Wednesday, November 13, that far-right leader Marine Le Pen receive a jail sentence and be banned from being elected to public office for five years over charges that she embezzled European Parliament funds.

The prosecution made the request in a Paris court where Le Pen and other defendants from her Rassemblement National (RN, far-right) party have stood trial, accused of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament. She has denied the charges.

If granted by the court, the ban would exclude the 56-year-old politician from running in France’s 2027 presidential election. The prosecution demanded the ban be effective immediately, even if the defense team appeals. The prosecution demanded that all of the two dozen defendants be excluded from running from public office.

It also demanded a five-year jail sentence for Le Pen, including three years suspended. It called for the two non-suspended years to be a “convertible” custodial sentence, meaning there would be a possibility of partial release. Finally, the prosecutors demanded the RN be fined two million euros ($2.1 million).

Le Pen promptly denounced the prosecutors’ motion as excessive, branding it an “outrage” and accusing prosecutors of trying to “ruin the (RN) party.” “I think the prosecutors’ wish is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for who they want,” she said.

The alleged fake jobs system, which was first flagged in 2015, covers parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016. Prosecutors say the assistants worked exclusively for the party outside parliament.

Addressing the trial last month, Le Pen said she was innocent. “I have absolutely no sense of having committed the slightest irregularity, or the slightest illegal act,” she told the court.

The RN, like other far-right parties around Europe, has been riding high after a strong performance in European elections in June.

The RN’s chairman Jordan Bardella called the prosecutors’ demands on Wednesday an “assault on democracy.”

“The prosecution is not acting justly,” he wrote on X. “It is seeking to persecute and take revenge on Marine Le Pen.”

Prosecutor Louise Neyton told the court earlier in Wednesday’s hearing her team was “not here to persecute” but as the result of a “long judicial investigation.”

She and Barret presented evidence that they said showed an “organized system” of embezzlement by which the party had aimed to “save money.”

Questioned last month about how exactly she selected her presumed parliamentary aides, and what their tasks were, Le Pen gave general answers or said she could not remember. If convicted, Le Pen would be able to lodge an appeal.

European Parliament authorities said the legislature had lost three million euros ($3.4 million) through the jobs scheme. The RN has paid back one million euros, which it insists is not an admission of guilt.