- A prison sentence, with or without suspension, which can theoretically go up to ten years.
The prosecution requested five years in prison, including three years suspended. The firm part of the sentence, two years, which is requested, is adjustable, which means that the leader of the far-right party would not go to prison but she could be placed under an electronic bracelet.
The prosecution demanded a fine of 100,000 euros (the maximum fine is 1 million). Against the RN judged as a legal entity, she requested 4.3 million euros including 2.3 million suspended, i.e. 2 million to be paid immediately and 2.3 million which remain like a sword of Damocles, if the party is new convict.
- An additional penalty of ineligibility
Under the Sapin 2 law of December 2016, a sentence of 5 years of ineligibility is necessarily imposed if Marine Le Pen is found guilty.
“The additional penalty of ineligibility is mandatory, according to the penal code, against any person guilty of certain offenses,” Benjamin Morel, lecturer in public law at Paris-I University, explains to AFP. Among the crimes concerned is the embezzlement of public funds for which Marine Le Pen is on trial.
If the court does not want to pronounce it, it must expressly justify this in its judgment.
The prosecution requested this 5-year ineligibility sentence and also requested that it be accompanied by provisional execution, i.e. immediate application, even in the event of an appeal.
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If the court declares simple ineligibility and Marine Le Pen decides to appeal, the sentence will be suspended until the second trial.
Comparing with the current deadlines for proceedings at the Paris Court of Appeal and then at the Court of Cassation, it is entirely possible that there will be no final decision before the 2027 presidential election.
On the other hand, if the court pronounces ineligibility with provisional execution, it will apply without delay.
“This means that the appeal which will be made will not paralyze the ineligibility which will be effective”, confirms to AFP Jean-Marie Brigant, lecturer in private law at the University of Le Mans.
If the judges follow the requisitions, Marine Le Pen will not be able to run for the next presidential election, “nor for any other electoral mandate”, specifies constitutionalist Charlène Bezzina.
And her current mandate as deputy?
This mandate would not be called into question. It is only “in the event of dissolution and early legislative elections” that she “will not be able to run”, reminds AFP Charlène Bezzina.
Indeed, the Constitutional Council, consistently, refuses to strip parliamentarians sentenced to a sentence of ineligibility from their mandate, as long as the decision is not final. Local elected officials, for their part, lose their mandates immediately.
“We have a principle of separation of powers which means that a parliamentary mandate cannot be interrupted by a court decision,” according to Benjamin Morel.
But if Louis Aliot, accused alongside Marine Le Pen, is sentenced to a sentence of provisional ineligibility, he will however have to leave his mandate as mayor of Perpignan – the rule does not apply to local mandates.
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