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French Court Bans Pro-Russian Politician Marine Le Pen From Elections Over Misuse of EU Funds
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![Ivan_khomenko]( "Ivan Khomenko")
-21d0b63c17f6020e4df75f6c6f9a2f4f.jpg "Ivan Khomenko")
French court convicted Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, of misusing European Parliament funds, according to Le Monde, on March 31.
As part of the ruling, Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison—two of which will be served under house arrest with electronic monitoring—and fined €100,000. She is now barred from running for public office for five years, a sanction that takes immediate effect and cannot be appealed.
The court found Le Pen and eight other Members of the European Parliament guilty of channeling EU funds intended for parliamentary assistants to pay staff working for the party.
The investigation covered the years 2004 to 2016 and revealed that a number of assistants were employed simultaneously in official party roles, in violation of EU regulations.
Twelve parliamentary aides were also convicted of benefiting from the misused funds. The total financial damage is estimated at €2.9 million. The court concluded that this was not a case of administrative oversight but an organized system intended to reduce party expenses.
Judge Benoît de Pertuis stated that “these individuals were effectively working for the party,” and not carrying out tasks assigned by the European Parliament.
Le Pen, who was a Member of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2017, was accused of employing fictitious assistants, including her chief of staff and personal bodyguard, who received EU-funded salaries while working for her party. In one case, an assistant reportedly spent only 740 minutes in the European Parliament throughout her tenure.
The verdict prevents Le Pen from running in any elections, including the 2027 French presidential race, where she was the leading candidate according to recent polls by Ifop, showing support between 34% and 37% among potential voters.
Le Pen, who has previously voiced support for closer ties with Russia and opposed EU sanctions following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, left the courtroom without comment before the final ruling was announced.
Moscow reacted sharply to the court’s decision. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the verdict against Le Pen “a violation of democracy,” stating that many European countries are increasingly disregarding democratic norms.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova also commented on the ruling, describing it as a sign of the “agony of liberal democracy,” according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Earlier, Romania’s Central Election Commission invalidated the presidential candidacy of far-right, pro-Russian politician Călin Georgescu following over a thousand complaints citing his extremist views. Declassified security documents indicated that Georgescu’s campaign received coordinated promotion on TikTok, while Romania faced ongoing hybrid attacks from Russia.
-924c3c302c27387e19f6c44aaeb98745.png "Maryna Kulakova")