WHY NOW? On Monday (March 31), Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party, was sentenced to a five-year ban on running for public office for embezzling European Union funds. The ruling, effective immediately, will likely prevent her from contesting the next presidential election in 2027. WHAT IS EMBEZZLEMENT? Quite simply, embezzlement is the crime of misusing an organisation’s funds for other than their intended purpose, often for personal use. This may be done by creating a front, an entity like a fake business or shell company, that appears to be legitimate but is used to disguise the misappropriation of such fronts. According to Investopedia, it is related to but differs from fraud, in that the embezzler had authorisation to use or oversee the property or funds. "Some types of embezzlement might be combined with other forms of fraud, such as Ponzi schemes. In such cases, the embezzler scams investors to entrust them with their assets to invest on their behalf but instead uses the money for personal gain and enrichment. Maintaining the fraud often includes seeking out new investors to bring in more money to appease prior investors," it says. WHAT ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST LE PEN? Marine Le Pen and other RN leaders went on trial on charges of using money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016, in violation of EU regulations. According to the court, Le Pen used four party employees as parliamentary assistants, including her personal assistant and her bodyguard, misusing EU funds for her political party. In doing so, her party allegedly embezzled over €4 million for 11 years. The judge accused her of being at the heart of a “system” that helped misappropriate EU parliament funds. WHAT IS THE PUNISHMENT? Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to two years under house arrest while wearing an ankle monitor and an additional two-year suspended sentence effective immediately. She has also been banned from contesting for public office for five years, making her ineligible to contest the 2027 presidential election, where she was a frontrunner. However, she remains a Member of Parliament. Le Pen has denied wrongdoing. She has been fined 100,000 euros ($108,000), while the RN was fined 2 million euros. WHO IS MARINE LE PEN? Marine Le Pen served as president of the RN between 2011 and 2022, and currently leads the party in the European Parliament. She is the daughter of the controversial leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who earlier led RN and was known as the ‘Devil of the Republic’ by his critics, owing to his racist and anti-semitic views. Le Pen transformed the party, once considered a political pariah, into a mainstream player. She has stood for President thrice, finishing second in 2017 and losing to Macron in 2022 even though she won over 40% of the vote. Le Pen has announced she will appeal against the charges, during which time the four-year sentences will be postponed. However, this will not make her eligible to contest the upcoming election. If this conviction is not overturned, her deputy and the current party president, Jordan Bardella, is likely to contest in her place for President.
