Furious Le Pen rails against ban on running for French presidency

Far-right leader found guilty of embezzling EU parliament funds

- Angelique Chrisafis

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has railed against a Paris court's "political decision" to bar her from competing for the presidency in 2027, describing the move to ban her from running for public office as "a denial of democracy".

In a day of high political drama, Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement of European parliament funds on a vast scale, a conviction for which she was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two of those years suspended and two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.

She was also ordered to pay a €100,000 (£84,000) fine.

A furious Le Pen announced she would appeal against the ruling, as nationalist and populist figures from around the world rushed to support her. Elon Musk, Tesla's billionaire owner, who has backed the far right in Germany and plays a major role in the US president Donald Trump's administration, said the sentence against Le Pen would "backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump".

The judges' decision, backed by more than 150 pages of legal justifications after a nine-week trial, was necessary because nobody was entitled to "immunity in violation of the rule of law", the head judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said.

It was nonetheless seen as a political earthquake in France as Le Pen had hoped to mount a fourth campaign to become president for her anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party.

Speaking for the first time in public about the verdict, Le Pen told TF1 television last night she would "pursue whatever legal avenues" she could to prevent herself from being "eliminated". "I'm not going to submit to a denial of democracy this easily," she said.