Marine Le Pen was prevented from running for the French presidency in 2027 | Marine Le Pen

The French far right leader Marine Le Pen It was forbidden to apply for the presidency in 2027 after a court found it guilty of a vast system of undue appropriation of funds of the European Parliament And he formed it to apply for a public load with immediate effect.

The decision was a political earthquake for the Pen, the leader of the ancient extreme immigration National rally (RN) Party, who had hoped to mount a fourth campaign to become president.

The RN, the single largest party in the French Parliament, reacted with Fury, defining the phrase a parody and an attack on democracy, supported by some politicians on traditional law.

The party president, Jordan Bardella, 29 years old, who could be seen as a replacement candidate despite his relative inexperience, said: “Today is not alone Marine Le Pen who was unjustly condemned: it was French democracy that killed. “

The judges delivered Le Pen, 56 years old, a five -year ban to apply for public offices with the additional arrangement that will have immediate effect and will apply despite the fact that it is an ally against the verdict.

Le Pen, who left the court before the end of the hearing, was sentenced to four years In prison with two suspended years and the other two who will be served outside the prison with an electronic bracelet. A fine of € 100,000 was delivered to her (£ 84,000). Neither the penalty of the prison nor the fine will be applied until its appeals are exhausted, a process that may take years.

In the front row of the court, the Pen showed no immediate reaction when the judge declared it guilty. But she became more agitated and shook her head in order, since the judge said that his party had illegally used European funds to his advantage.

At a certain point, the Pen whispered: “Incredible”. Then he went abruptly without notice, before his sentence had been set.

Louis Aliot, vice -president of RN and mayor of Perpignan, who was also stated, said that Le Pen’s sentence was a “intrusion” in the electoral process that “would have left an indelible stain on the history of our democracy”.

The lawyer of Le Pen, Rodolphe Bosselut, said: “It’s a serious blow for democracy”. Laurent Jacobelli, an RN and party spokesperson legislator, said that the Pen was “combat mood”.

The grandson of Le Pen, Marion Maréchal, also accused the judges of the court of “thinking about themselves as above the … people” and said that Le Pen had been condemned only because she was “guiding our part on the path of victory”.

The French Socialist Party declared in a declaration that the “independence of the judicial system and the rule of law” must be respected by everyone. But Laurent Wauquiez, of the traditional right -wing party Les Républicains, said that it was a “very heavy and exceptional phrase” that was not “very healthy in democracy”.

François-Xavier Bellamy, a member of the European Parliament for Les Républicains, said: “Whatever you think of the RN and in this case, today is a dark day for French democracy”.

International politicians on the populist Right criticized the sentence, including the far -right Dutch politician Geert Wilders. In an apparent demonstration of solidarity, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, declared: “I Am Marine”.

Le Pen and 24 Party members, including nine former members of the European Parliament and their 12 parliamentary assistants, were judged to guilty of a vast regime for many years to appropriate funds from the European Parliament, using money allocated for the European Parliament assistants to pay instead the party workers in France.

The so -called false work system covered parliamentary contracts between 2004 and 2016 and was unprecedented by scale and durability, causing losses of 4.5 million euros to the European funds of taxpayers. The assistants paid by the European Parliament must work directly on Parliamentary issues of Strasbourg, which the judges discovered that it was not the case.

The Pen will be able to preserve his current assignment as a member of the French Parliament for Pas-de-Calais, but will not be able to stay again in a future parliamentary election for the duration of his prohibition to apply.

Le Pen took on the leadership of the National Front by his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011 and began the push to disinfect the anti-Semitic image of the party jackbooted.

She Rally Rally National of the party in 2018If you want to be seen as a potential government force, not only a protest movement, and has applied for the president three times, reaching the final outflow twice against Emmanuel Macron.

In 2022, Le Pen provided the extreme right his taller count ever in the French presidential elections, winning more than 13 million votes. Before the sentence on Monday he had seen the presidential race of 2027 as his best possibility of gaining multiple land on an anti-immigration platform, while his opponents attacked the political platform of his party as a racist, xenophobic and anti-Islam.

An IFOP survey published by the Journal du Dimanche this weekend discovered that Le Pen could have won 34-37% in the first round of the next presidential elections and its destiny in the second outflow round would depend on the fact that all her opponents have united to vote against her.

The party will now have to decide who would take its place in the next French presidential race. BardellaA member of the European Parliament is popular with the voters but is seen as little experience.