French prosecutors seek five-year prison sentence for Marine Le Pen

Guilty verdict could prevent her from running for president in 2027 election

Marine Le Pen arrives for her trial on suspicion of embezzlement of EU funds at a court in Paris. AFP

Paris prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence and ban from public office for Marine Le Pen in a case that accuses the far-right leader of embezzling EU funds.

She is standing alongside more than 20 others in the trial, which is taking place almost a decade after initial investigations started.

It comes as Ms Le Pen’s influence on French politics has never been greater with her effectively able to wield a veto over policies set by Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a deeply divided National Assembly. In addition to potentially jeopardising her personal political ambitions, the case threatens to derail her party’s plans to build credibility and convince French voters it will be ready to govern by the next presidential race in 2027.

On Wednesday, prosecutors Louise Neyton and Nicolas Barret requested a €300,000 ($316,860) fine, five years in prison and an ineligibility sentence against Ms Le Pen, with provisional execution. If the court finds her guilty of the charges with this provisional execution, she will not be able to run in the presidential vote, which many believe she can win, even if she appeals the judgment.

While the Paris criminal court is not expected to issue a ruling for another few months, the prosecutors’ recommendations were a widely awaited part of a trial that began six weeks ago.

“I note that the prosecution is being extremely outrageous in its demands, particularly with the request for provisional execution, which it wants to impose on everyone being prosecuted,” Ms Le Pen said while leaving court.

Marine Le Pen through the years – in pictures

Throughout the trial, Ms Le Pen and other party members elected to the European Parliament were accused of improperly using a budget allocation for EU aides. As well as being accused of personally embezzling about €474,000 between 2009 and 2016 in relation to four of her aides, Ms Le Pen is also accused of encouraging other party members to misuse EU funds. She denied the allegations when testifying in the case last month.

Prosecutors say the aides focused on work for the then-National Front in France rather than EU affairs as their contracts specified. The indictment highlights that one of Ms Le Pen’s aides was in fact working for her father as a personal assistant. On Wednesday, Ms Neyton highlighted the party’s “particularly tricky” financial situation at the time.

That meant “the EU funds seemed like a godsend and were used as such”, she said. “And as we’ve seen, there were no checks on the actual work carried out by the parliamentary aides before 2014-2015. It was too tempting,” Ms Neyton added.

Attorneys for Ms Le Pen, the National Rally and other defendants will get to make their closing arguments in the coming days and Paris judges will then announce the date they plan to issue their ruling.