By Elizabeth Pineau and Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS (Reuters) -A French court on Monday barred French far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running in the 2027 presidential election after she was convicted of embezzlement, in a seismic ruling that could fuel global tensions over judicial efforts to police politics.
The French court’s ruling was a catastrophic setback for Le Pen, 56. The National Rally (RN) party chief is one of the most prominent figures of the European far right, and a front-runner in polls for France’s 2027 contest.
The ruling could have wide-ranging repercussions on French politics, upending the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron and placing additional pressure on his weak minority government enfeebled after months of consecutive crises.
It is also likely to exacerbate growing global anger among right-wing leaders over unelected judges meddling in their mandates.
In a prime time TV interview on TF1, Le Pen said she was innocent, and would appeal as soon as possible against what she described as a politicized ruling aimed at blocking her presidential bid. She said she was currently out of the running for 2027, but would continue to fight for her future.
“Tonight there are millions of French people who are outraged, outraged to an unimaginable degree, seeing that in France, in the country of human rights, judges have implemented practices that we thought were reserved for authoritarian regimes,” she said.
Le Pen’s five-year public office ban cannot be suspended by appeal, although she will retain her parliamentary seat until her term ends. She also received a four-year prison sentence – two years of which are suspended and two years to be served under home detention, and a 100,000-euro ($108,200) fine, but they will not apply until her appeals are exhausted.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has led calls to impeach U.S. judges blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda, while also lending his support to European far-right figures, alleged an establishment plot behind Le Pen’s defenestration.
“When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents,” he wrote on X. “This is their standard playbook throughout the world.”
Judge Benedicte de Perthuis said Le Pen had been “at the heart” of a scheme to misappropriate more than 4 million euros ($4.3 million) of EU funds and use them to pay the far-right party’s staff back home.
The lack of remorse by Le Pen and other defendants was among the reasons that prompted the court to ban them from running for office with immediate effect, de Perthuis said.
Le Pen’s allies, as well as far-right leaders from Europe and around the world, joined in condemning the ruling as judicial overreach.
“Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly convicted: It was French democracy that was killed,” said Le Pen’s right-hand man, RN president Jordan Bardella.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was barred from office until 2030 for abuse of power, told Reuters Le Pen’s sentence was “left-wing judicial activism.”
“Je suis Marine!” Viktor Orban wrote on X.
France’s High Council of the Judiciary expressed its concern over what it called “virulent reactions” provoked by the ruling.
“Statements by political leaders on the merits of the prosecution or the conviction, particularly during the deliberations, cannot be accepted in a democratic society,” it said in a statement.
Centrist lawmaker Sacha Houlie offered the judges his support.
“At what point do we think that a judge will not apply the law?” he posted on X .”Is society so sick that it is offended by what is nothing more and nothing less than the rule of law?”
‘POLITICAL DEATH’?
Le Pen has run three times for president and had said 2027 would be her final run for top office. Her hopes now lie in overturning Monday’s ruling at appeal before the election. Appeals in France can take months or even years.
There have been instances of immediate political bans in France since the passage of toughened anti-corruption laws in 2016, but Le Pen supporters accused judges of policing politics.
Arnaud Benedetti, a political analyst, said Le Pen’s ban was a watershed moment.
“This is a seismic political event,” he said. “Inevitably, it’s going to reshuffle the pack, particularly on the right.”
Bardella looks set to become the RN’s de facto candidate for the 2027 election. But Le Pen suggested she was not yet ready to hand him the baton.
“Jordan Bardella is a tremendous asset to the party,” she said on TF1. “But I’m not going to let myself be eliminated like this. Millions of French people believe in me.”
Bardella, 29, has helped expand the RN’s appeal among younger voters, but experts said he may lack the experience to win over the broader electorate the RN needs to secure victory in 2027.
The RN and two dozen party figures were also found guilty of diverting European Parliament funds. The party was ordered to pay a 2 million euro fine, with half the amount suspended.
($1 = 0.9258 euros)
(Additional reporting by Michaela Cabrera; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter and Ingrid MelanderEditing by Richard Lough, Frances Kerry, Timothy Heritage and Sandra Maler)
