Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, was found guilty of embezzlement by a criminal court in Paris on Monday and immediately barred from running for public office for five years, setting off a democratic crisis in France.

The verdict effectively barred the current front-runner in the 2027 presidential election from participating in it, an extraordinary step but one the presiding judge said was necessary because nobody is entitled to “immunity in violation of the rule of law.”Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s protege and a likely presidential candidate in her absence, said on social media, “Not only has Marine Le Pen been unjustly convicted, French democracy has been executed.” Hard-right leaders across Europe, including Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, appeared to agree.

“Je suis Marine!” Orban declared.

However, Sacha Houlié, a centrist lawmaker, asked, “Is our society really so sick that we are going to take offense at what is no more and no less than the rule of law?”

The verdict infuriated Le Pen, an anti-immigrant, nationalist politician who has already mounted three failed presidential bids. Murmuring “incredible,” she briskly left without warning, picking up her bag and striding out, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor. The abrupt departure left many in the courtroom in disbelief as they turned their heads toward the door.

Le Pen, looking grim, told TF1 television the ruling was a “political” attempt to thwart her. She said millions of French people were “outraged” and she vowed to fight back despite slim chances of legal success. “Let’s be clear,” she said. “I am eliminated, but in reality its millions of French people whose voices have been eliminated.

“I’m not going to submit to a democratic denial so easily,” Le Pen said angrily, displaying little of the “serenity” that she had spoken of before the verdict.

An opinion poll on the presidential election published Sunday gave Le Pen 34% to 37% of the vote, more than 10 points ahead of her nearest rival. President Emmanuel Macron is term-limited and cannot run again.

Le Pen has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which involved accusations that her party, the National Rally, misused several million euros in European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016. Le Pen was found guilty not of personally enriching herself but of overseeing a complex scheme to pay party staff members with money intended for aides to European lawmakers.

The court also sentenced Le Pen, 56, to four years in prison, with two of those years suspended. The court said the other two could be served under a form of house arrest. She was fined 100,000 euros (about $108,000).

Potential appeal

Le Pen’s electoral ineligibility is effective immediately. As a result, she will be able to run in 2027 only if she secures a more lenient ruling on appeal — which is difficult but not impossible. The appeals process is slow in France, and even if a new trial took place before the election, it is unclear whether the prosecution’s case would be overturned.

The presiding judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, acknowledged that a politician prevented from running for office might later win on appeal, and she said the tribunal could not be indifferent to “the need to seek social consensus.”

But the gravity of the case, and the apparent refusal of those accused to acknowledge the facts, made political disqualification necessary, the judge said. The court has to “ensure that elected officials, like any citizen, do not benefit from any favorable treatment,” she noted.

The verdict could usher in a period of renewed political turmoil if Le Pen decides to lash out against France’s fragile government or if anger spills over into the streets. The government struggled to pass a budget this year and could still be toppled at any time by lawmakers in the lower house of parliament, where Le Pen’s party is the single largest.

The verdict does not affect her current mandate as a lawmaker in the lower house. But if Macron calls snap elections, as he did last year, she will not be eligible to run again. Given the current impasse in a divided assembly, such a dissolution this year is plausible.

Near $5M diverted

Until Monday, the accusations that Le Pen and her party had embezzled a sum close to $5 million in European Parliament funds had done little to hinder the National Rally’s rise from the fringes of French politics to its heart.

Le Pen has endeavored to rebrand the party, founded in 1972 by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, steering it away from its antisemitic and racist roots. Its platform, however, has remained resolutely hard right, calling for extreme toughness on crime and drastic measures against immigration.

The court ruled that Marine Le Pen had played a “central role” in the scheme to siphon funds from the European Parliament and to fill up party coffers at a time when they were precariously empty. Le Pen was a European lawmaker from 2004 to 2017.

The judge handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like Le Pen, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Also convicted were 12 people who served as parliamentary aides and three others. Only one defendant was acquitted. All had denied wrongdoing during the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024.

The party used lawmaker assistants who were paid with European Parliament funds to perform tasks for the party that were unrelated to EU business, the court ruled.

It also rejected Le Pen’s argument that the case was a political witch hunt.

“No one is on trial for engaging in politics,” de Perthuis said.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.