Such a conviction would be “deeply shocking[e] », According to the former Minister of the Interior. While the prosecution requested this Wednesday in Paris five years in prison, including two years in prison, and five years of ineligibility against Marine Le Pen in the so-called “parliamentary assistants” affair, Gérald Darmanin estimated on ex-Twitter) that if the figure of the National Rally (RN) had to “be condemned”, it should not be “electorally, without the expression of the people”.
“It would be deeply shocking if Marine Le Pen were deemed ineligible and, thus, unable to stand before the vote of the French people. Fighting Madame Le Pen is done at the polls, not elsewhere,” wrote Bruno Retailleau’s predecessor at the Ministry of the Interior, in the middle of the evening. “Let us not be afraid of democracy and let us avoid widening, even further, the difference between elites and the vast majority of our fellow citizens,” he added.
Leaving the courtroom this Wednesday evening, Marine Le Pen, who had stiffened on her bench as the announcement of the requested sentences approached, also denounced the “violence” and “excess” requisitions. “I think that the desire of the prosecution is to deprive the French of the ability to vote for those they want” and to “ruin the party” (the prosecution is asking 4.3 million euros from the RN), he said. -she added.
Mandatory ineligibility for this type of offense
The requisitions of the two prosecutors in charge of the case are however not the result of personal vindictiveness against the president of the RN group in the Assembly. Nor from a desire to prevent him from running for the 2027 presidential election… In the Penal Code, the penalty of ineligibility is mandatory for the offense of embezzlement of public funds. Which is precisely what Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter and her party are accused of in this trial.
The facts alleged against Marine Le Pen in this case extend from 2009 to 2016. However, article 432-17 of the Penal Code, as amended by the Sapin 2 law “relating to transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life” of December 9, 2016, makes ineligibility mandatory for a series of financial crimes, including those with which he is accused.
Despite everything, hope remains for the former president of the flame party. If she were to be convicted, the court could, in the name of the individualization of sentences and their “strict necessity” – a constitutional principle – not apply the penalty of ineligibility. However, it would be up to the judge to expressly justify this decision.
A sentence accompanied by provisional execution
In the short term, however, she will neither be able to count on an appeal nor on an appeal to the Court of Cassation: the prosecution has in fact demanded that the penalty of ineligibility against Marine Le Pen be accompanied by provisional execution, c i.e. it applies immediately, even in the event of an appeal. In principle, these two procedures are suspensive, that is to say they suspend the execution of the sentence, pending a new judgment.
As a reminder, the National Rally is accused of being at the “center” of an “organized system” aimed at concluding “artificial contracts” for European parliamentary assistants who in reality worked for the party to replenish the party's coffers between 2004 and 2011. According to the prosecution, this system, which was “strengthened” with the arrival of Marine Le Pen at the head of the party in 2011, is “unprecedented” in its duration, the “amount” of embezzlements (4.5 million) and its “organized nature”.
