{"id":271425,"date":"2025-04-01T14:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/01\/marine-le-pens-embezzlement-conviction-what-to-know-and-whats-next-2\/"},"modified":"2025-04-01T14:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T14:11:17","slug":"marine-le-pens-embezzlement-conviction-what-to-know-and-whats-next-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/01\/marine-le-pens-embezzlement-conviction-what-to-know-and-whats-next-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Le Pen\u2019s Embezzlement Conviction: What to Know and What\u2019s Next"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/31\/multimedia\/31int-france-lepen-wwk-01-khcb\/31int-france-lepen-wwk-01-khcb-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Marine Le Pen\u2019s Embezzlement Conviction: What to Know and What\u2019s Next\" title=\"Marine Le Pen\u2019s Embezzlement Conviction: What to Know and What\u2019s Next\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Marine Le Pen, the leader of France\u2019s far right and a leading candidate to become the country\u2019s next president, has been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/31\/world\/europe\/france-marine-le-pen-embezzlement-2027-election-ban.html\" title=\"\">barred<\/a> from running for public office for five years, after she and her party were convicted of embezzling millions of euros of European Union funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen, an anti-immigrant, populist politician, was also sentenced to four years in prison \u2014 with two years suspended and two that could be served under house arrest \u2014 and fined 100,000 euros, or about $108,000. She has consistently denied any wrongdoing and will appeal the verdict, which would put her jail sentence and the fine on hold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the ruling against Ms. Le Pen and her party, the National Rally, threatens to ruin her plans to run for the presidency in 2027. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She has spent years trying to soften her party\u2019s image and move it into the mainstream by disavowing its antisemitic roots after expelling her father from the far-right party he once led. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-42b63493\">Who is Marine Le Pen?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen, 56, became the face of France\u2019s far right after taking over the party in 2011 from her father, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/07\/world\/europe\/jean-marie-le-pen-dead.html\" title=\"\">Jean-Marie Le Pen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen has sought to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/25\/world\/europe\/france-national-rally-rebranding.html\" title=\"\">detoxify the political movement<\/a> he built by softening some of its policies, changing the name of the party from the National Front to the National Rally, publicly rejecting her father\u2019s antisemitism \u2014 he was convicted by a French court of Holocaust denial for saying that the Nazi gas chambers were a \u201cdetail\u201d of history \u2014 and trying to court disaffected voters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But even if the tone has changed, Ms. Le Pen\u2019s platform is still staunchly hard right. Her policies include using severe measures to curb immigration and pushing for French-born citizens to have more rights to social benefits and other areas of state support, even though some argue that this could violate the French Constitution.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen has run for the country\u2019s highest office three times, and although she has yet to win she has succeeded in steadily increasing her share of the vote and expanding her party\u2019s reach. In the last presidential election in 2022, she won 41.5 percent of the vote, up from 33.9 percent in the previous election five years earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last year, the National Rally became the biggest single party in the National Assembly, the country\u2019s lower house of Parliament, for the first time.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-4ccc1e4a\">What were the charges?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A French criminal court ruled that Ms. Le Pen played a \u201ccentral role\u201d in an illegal scheme by the party, when it was still called the National Front, to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/30\/world\/europe\/le-pen-eu-france-embezzlement-trial.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">use the equivalent of almost $5 million<\/a> of European Parliament funds for party expenses between 2004 and 2016. The party was short of cash at the time, and Ms. Le Pen was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The court found that the party used European Parliament funds to pay assistants to National Front members of the body for work that was unrelated to E.U. business. The judges rejected Ms. Le Pen\u2019s argument that it was appropriate for the assistants to do party-related work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">B\u00e9n\u00e9dicte de Perthuis, the presiding judge, called the ban necessary because of the seriousness of the charges and the fact that the accused seemed unwilling to acknowledge the facts. The court has to \u201censure that elected officials, like any citizen, do not benefit from any favorable treatment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen has called the case a political witch hunt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday night, she told TF1 television that the ruling was an attempt to thwart her. \u201cI\u2019m not going to submit to a democratic denial so easily,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-3f100e54\">What\u2019s next for Ms. Le Pen and her party?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen left the court before the full verdict was read out and did not address reporters as she departed. e<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ruling does not strip her of her seat in the National Assembly, but Ms. Le Pen will only be able to run for president in 2027 if she secures a more favorable ruling on appeal before the deadline to enter the race. But even a successful appeal could take some time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The court also ruled that the National Rally had to pay a 2 million euro fine, half of which would be suspended. Twenty-three other people were convicted on charges related to the scheme to embezzle European Parliament funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ruling does not bar Jordan Bardella, Ms. Le Pen\u2019s 29-year-old prot\u00e9g\u00e9, from running for president in her absence. He is seen as the leading alternative candidate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<p><h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-7a2f0555\">Where does this leave France?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The ruling could <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/31\/world\/europe\/marine-le-pen-embezzelment-democracy.html\" title=\"\">reignite the political chaos<\/a> that roiled France last year after President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections. The French government is not popular, and struggled to pass a budget this year. It could be toppled by lawmakers in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen and the National Rally could also paint the verdict as a threat against a popular politician and party, and French democracy itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/article\/marine-le-pen-embezzlement-france.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marine Le Pen, the leader of France\u2019s far right and a leading candidate to become the country\u2019s next president, has been barred from running for public office for five years, after she and her party were convicted of embezzling millions of euros of European Union funds. Ms. Le Pen, an anti-immigrant, populist politician, was also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/31\/multimedia\/31int-france-lepen-wwk-01-khcb\/31int-france-lepen-wwk-01-khcb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2712,155970,67,19393,96465,9403,165513,6896,145235,35881,137131,300],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271427,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271425\/revisions\/271427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}