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French state prosecutors have asked appeal court judges to maintain a five-year election ban on the far-right leader Marine Le Pen for embezzlement of European parliament funds in a fake jobs scandal.
If the judges decide to grant the request, Le Pen would probably not be able to run in France’s 2027 presidential election.
The state prosecutors also recommended a four-year prison sentence against Le Pen, three of which would be suspended, and one served at home with an electronic bracelet. They also requested a €100,000 (£fine.
“The seriousness of the charges means any other sanction would be inadequate,” Stéphane Madoz-Blanchet, one of the state prosecutors in the case, said on Tuesday.
The final decision on sentencing will be made by a panel of appeal judges who will take several months to deliberate and return a verdict “before the summer”.
Le Pen, 57, who leads the anti-immigration National Rally (RN), was considered to be one of the top contenders for next year’s French presidential election until she was barred from running for election for five years with immediate effect last March after being found guilty of an extensive and long-running fake jobs scam at the European parliament.
Le Pen appealed against last year’s verdict and a fresh trial at Paris’s court of appeal is entering its final stages. Le Pen is seeking to overturn last year’s verdict and sentence in order to run for president in 2027. She told the court there was no “system” set up by her party to misuse European parliament funds.
But state prosecutors summing up the case against Le Pen on Tuesday that she had been at the centre of a “thought-out”, “centralised” and almost “industrial” system to embezzle European parliament funds.
They told the appeal court that taxpayer money allocated to members of the European parliament to pay their assistants based in Strasbourg or Brussels was siphoned off by the party from 2004 to 2016, to pay its own workers in France, in violation of the parliament’s rules.
The staff in France had no connection to work undertaken at the European parliament, prosecutors said. The loss to European funds was estimated at €4.8m (£4.2m). The party, which was then called Front National, made substantial savings through the system, the prosecutors said. The system was well documented in email exchanges and party papers.
One state prosecutor, Thierry Ramonatxo, criticised Le Pen for making public attacks on judges after last year’s verdict, when she said a “tyranny of judges” wanted to stop her running in a presidential race that she could otherwise win.
Ramonatxo said that judges simply apply the law that has been voted for by the people’s representatives in parliament. He said Le Pen had “made a choice to attack judges on the political stage rather than to reflect upon what she had been reproached for”.
He said: “Speaking of a ‘tyranny of judges’, of a ‘violation of the state of law’ or of ‘political assassination’ is not part of the judicial debate in a democratic society. It is not part of a debate of ideas but rather is aimed at discrediting all judicial actions in their entirety.”
Ramonatxo said this was dangerous and judges had been exposed to death threats because of these attacks.
He added: “Speaking of a conspiracy of judges is not an argument, it’s a withdrawal reflex each time the cause seems lost.”
He noted Le Pen’s “change of tone” in the appeal court which had a calmer atmosphere, compared with her anti-judges press conference and media interviews last year.
The state prosecutors did not request that a five-year ban from running for public office should take immediate effect. However, this detail – which would leave room for a final appeal to France’s highest court – is unlikely to change the fact that a five-year ban would effectively prevent Le Pen being able to stand for the presidency next spring.
Le Pen, in the front row in court, sat taking notes and shaking her head as the state prosecutors outlined their case against her and 10 other party members who appealed against last year’s verdict – a further 13 who were convicted last year have not appealed.
Outside court, before the state prosecutors’ summing up, Le Pen had told journalists: “I’m a believer, so I believe in miracles.”
Defence lawyers will give closing speeches next week. If Le Pen is banned from running for office, she would be replaced by her protege and party president, Jordan Bardella, 30.
Le Pen has recently begun speaking of Bardella as a clear alternative if she can no longer run for president, telling La Tribune Dimanche last month: “Jordan Bardella can win in my place.” She said whatever the outcome, her party would dominate and its “ideas will survive”.
