Marine Le Pen prevented herself from presenting herself to the French presidency in 2027 | Marine Le Pen

The leader of the French far right Marine Le Pen was forbidden to present himself to the presidency in 2027 after a court found him guilty of a vast system of embezzlement of the European Parliament and prohibited him from presenting himself to public functions with immediate effect.

The decision was a political earthquake for Le Pen, the leader of the National Rallye National Party (RN), who had hoped to set up a fourth campaign to become president.

Le Pen, 56, said before the verdict that any immediate ban on presenting itself to the elections would be like a “condemnation to political death” and that the judges had “the power of life or death on our movement”.

The judges gave Le Pen a prohibition to present themselves to the public service with the additional provision according to which it will take the immediate effect and apply despite the fact that it appeals against the verdict.

Le Pen, who left the court before the end of the hearing, was also sentenced to four years In prison with two years suspended and the other two should be purged outside prison with an electronic bracelet. She received a fine of € 100,000 (£ 84,000). Neither the prison sentence nor the fine will be applied until his calls are exhausted.

There was no immediate comment from Le Pen on the decision. His right man, the president of RN, Jordan Bardella, said: “Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly condemned: it was French democracy that was killed”.

“It is a blow for democracy,” said Le Pen’s lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut, to journalists outside the Paris headquarters. Laurent Jacobelli, legislative and party spokesperson, said the Pen was in a “combat mood”.

Le Pen and 24 Party members, including nine former members of the European Parliament and their 12 parliamentary assistants, were found guilty of a vast program for many years to divert the funds from the European Parliament, using money intended for European assistants in the Parliament to pay the workers of the parties in France.

The so-called false job system covered parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016 and was unprecedented in terms of scale and duration, causing losses of 4.5 million euros to European taxpayers. Assistants paid by the European Parliament must work directly on parliamentary issues from Strasbourg, which the judges have judged had not been the case.

Le Pen will be able to keep his current position as a member of the French Parliament for Pas-de-Calais, but will not be able to stand again in a future parliamentary election for the duration of his ban on presenting himself to the elections.

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Le Pen appeared three times for the French president, twice the final runoff against Emmanuel Macron. Her national Rally party appeared as the largest party in Parliament after the Snap 2024 legislative elections. She had believed that she had her greatest chance of winning the Élysée in 2027 on a platform against immigration.

Addressing the trial last month, Le Pen said that it was innocent: “I have absolutely no sense to have committed any irregularity, or the slightest illegal act.”

The party will now have to decide who would take its place in the next French presidential race. Jordan Bardella, 29, the young president of the party, a member of the European Parliament, is popular among the voters, but is considered to have little experience.