High-stakes trial that could derail presidential ambitions of France's Marine Le Pen wraps up

[November 27, 2024]  By SYLVIE CORBET

PARIS (AP) — Marine Le Pen’s trial is ending with one key question: will France’s leading far-right figure be able to run in the next presidential race?

Defense lawyers are speaking Wednesday for the last time at the trial in Paris on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds.

The Paris court is expected to render its verdict in the spring of next year. It could declare Le Pen ineligible to seek public office if it finds her guilty. That could throw her political future into disarray and upend the election race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, scheduled in 2027.

Le Pen's National Rally party and 25 of its officials, including her, are accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay instead staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called the National Front at the time.

Le Pen and other co-defendants denied wrongdoing.

Paris prosecutors have requested a 2-year prison sentence for Le Pen. In addition, they asked for a 5-year period of ineligibility to run for office “with immediate effectiveness" — independent of whether she files an appeal or not.

Such a verdict would be the worst-case scenario for Le Pen.

A leading candidate for the presidency

For over a decade, Le Pen has worked at making her party more mainstream, dulling its extremist edge to broaden its appeal to voters.

She has already positioned herself as a candidate to succeed Macron, having finished runner-up to him in 2017 and 2022.

But the trial could prove to be a major and possibly decisive hurdle.

Le Pen pleaded not guilty. However, she appeared in recent weeks to anticipate a guilty verdict, telling the panel of three judges: “I feel we didn’t succeed in convincing you.”

In court, Le Pen has been a forceful presence. Outside the courtroom, she's repeatedly expressed irritation at charges she says are unfounded.

A measure of the potential gravity of the case for Le Pen is the time and energy she has devoted to the hearings. She often stayed late into the night as nitty-gritty courtroom debates about the role and financing of parliamentary aides dragged on.

Le Pen argued all the work done by aides was justified and above board. She said their missions had to be adapted to the MEPs’ various activities, including some highly political tasks related to the party.

Prosecutors denounced Le Pen's central role

Prosecutors spoke of the “unprecedented” dimension of the alleged embezzlement and its "organized, maximized, systemic and systematic nature.”

They alleged that Le Pen was central in what they called a “system” for her party to “save money at the expense of the European Parliament.”

They also said some of the well-paid jobs contributed to finance the “comfortable lifestyle” of Le Pen’s family and friends.

“They made from the European Parliament their cash cow,” prosecutor Louise Neyton said. “If the Parliament had not rung the bell, they would have continued.”

“Their only regret is they have been caught!"

EU money was used to pay her bodyguard

Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who before used to be her father’s bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.

Le Pen’s sister, Yann, is also accused of having been paid as an EU parliamentary aide when she was instead in charge of organizing the party’s big events.

Others worked as aides to party officials they had no employment contract with.

The verdict could weigh on French political life

Prosecutor Nicolas Barret acknowledged that a verdict rendering Le Pen ineligible to seek public office is "not without consequences, obviously for those convicted, but also for (France's) public and democratic life.”

Yet the judicial authority “merely takes note of fraudulent behavior and is not at the origin of the situation,” he insisted.

Prosecutors requested a guilty verdict for all of Le Pen's co-defendants, including various sentences of up to one year in prison and a 2-million euro fine for the party.

A potential appeal could lead to another trial for the case in 2026 — just before the next presidential race.

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