FAR-right leader Marine Le Pen has vowed to “fight to the bitter end” after she was banned from running in France’s next election.
The National Rally leader was found guilty in an embezzlement case and barred from running for public officer for five years.
APFar-right leader Marine Le Pen has vowed to fight to the bitter end after being found guilty of embezzlement[/caption]
AFPShe was barred from running for public office for five years[/caption]
RexThe National Rally leader maintains her innocence[/caption]
She has also insisted that she is not “demoralised”, and feels “scandalised by the decision”, despite the latest conviction crushing her ambition to become the next President of France.
The 56-year-old far-right politician stormed out of the Paris Correctional Court after being found guilty in a corruption case involving her party, the National Rally (RN).
She was found guilty by three judges of “embezzling public funds” by setting up a fake jobs at the European Parliament.
Le Pen was barred from running for office for five years effective immediately.
The party leader was also given a sentence of two years in prison and two further years on house arrest, both suspended pending her appeal and a new trial.
Her allies reacted with fury and blasted the conviction as politically motivated – calling it a “declaration of war by Brussels”.
She will no longer be able to stand as President in 2027, despite being viewed as a favourite to take over from Emmanuel Macron.
In a hard-hitting judgement, magistrates accused Le Pen “undermining democracy”.
Prosecutors have called for a five-year prison sentence – with two served as community service – and a fine equivalent to £250,000.
Le Pen and 24 other defendants are said to have stolen around £5.6million of European taxpayers’ money by setting up fake jobs in the European Parliament over a period of at least a decade.
Those convicted alongside here included eight other former RN MEPs.
Instead of spending the money on MEP expenses in Brussels and Strasbourg, they sent it all back to the RN party HQ in Paris, it is alleged.
The judgement read: “Marine Le Pen has been at the heart of this illegal system since 2009.
“The events have seriously and lastingly undermined the rules of democracy.
“This is an enrichment of the party, a circumvention of the rules governing political party financing, and therefore a circumvention of democracy.”
RexThe leader spoke on TV about her reaction to the conviction[/caption]
AFPMarine Le Pen enters a car outside the RN headquarters after a French court sentenced her to a five-year ban on running for office[/caption]
Facing up to three specialist anti-corruption judges during a trial that ended in November, Ms Le Pen said: “It’s my political death they’re after.
“The prosecution’s intention is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for those they want.”
This was despite evidence pointing to a “sophisticated billing system” being set up by Le Pen, an MEP in Brussels from 2004 until 2017.
Prosecutor Louise Neyton said Le Pen and her co-defendants had “bluntly put, turned the European Parliament into their cash cow.”
President Macron will be forced to stand down as head of state in 2027, having served the two terms allowed in France.
Ms Le Pen came second in the last two presidential elections, and her vote share has gone up every time.
The RN is currently the largest part in the National Assembly – the Paris equivalent of the House of Commons – with 123 seats
Around 13 million people vote for the party at elections – around a third of the national vote – and many see Ms Le Pen as the appropriate successor to the liberal centrist Mr Macron, who came to power in 2017.
SplashMarine Le Pen has been banned from standing in the upcoming election and sentenced to four years in prison[/caption]
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