Far-right fake jobs trial: Marine Le Pen could automatically be banned from running for president in 2027

Marine Le Pen was truly scared this time. The three-time presidential candidate found out on Wednesday, November 7, at the same time as her lawyers, that if she were convicted in the trial of the Front National (FN, former name of her far-right Rassemblement National party) parliamentary assistants at the European Parliament, she would be banned from running for president for five years, unless the court gave a specially reasoned decision. And she is well aware that a conviction (the proceedings will close on November 12) has become highly likely. Judgment will be handed down at the beginning of 2025.

“This automaticity, which I consider questionable, could have extremely serious consequences,” Le Pen said. “Not just for me, but for 13 million voters.” In the 2022 presidential election, the candidate, who lost to Emmanuel Macron, won 41.45% of the votes cast, that is 13,288,686 votes.

Her lawyers were shocked; they were only ready to argue against an extension of the prevention period, in other words, the period during which the misappropriation of public funds took place. Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s father and FN president at the time, is legally responsible for these misappropriations from 2004 onward; Marine Le Pen, who subsequently took over as party leader, is legally responsible from 2011 to 2016 – the case of her 96-year-old father should theoretically be examined at a later date, but, given his state of health, it’s not likely.

The problem therefore primarily concerns Marine Le Pen. However, the prosecutors, Nicolas Barret and Louise Neyton, pointed out, in the early days of the hearing, that the parliamentary assistants’ contracts were not closed until the European Parliament had regularized the funds, which took some time. On Wednesday, Neyton summarized the official closing date of the contracts. “The period is sometimes extended by three years, without any positive act by the defendants,” said Rodolphe Bosselut, Marine Le Pen’s lawyer, who had not thought of this and who, along with all his colleagues, believes that the unexpected extension of the prevention period violates the rights of the defense.

Overwhelming responsibility

This extension brings the defendants under the scope of the September 15, 2017, law for “confidence in political life,” which imposes an ineligibility sentence in the event of a conviction, as French satirical weekly newspaper Le Canard enchaîné noted on October 23. Marine Le Pen had immediately declared that she would not answer questions beyond 2016.

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