Le Pen sentenced to four years in prison
31 March 15:50
The French far-right politician Marine Le Pen was sentenced to 4 years in prison and a 100,000 euro fine. Earlier, it was also announced that she would be banned from running for election for 5 years.
This was reported by Le Monde, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
She will be able to serve her sentence with an electronic bracelet. Earlier, the court also issued a 5-year ban on Le Pen from running for election, which came into effect immediately and cannot be appealed.
She did not wait for the verdict to be announced, leaving the court without giving any comments and heading to her party’s headquarters.
The case in which the politician was tried relates to the period from 2004 to 2016, when assistants to MEPs from the far-right National Union party simultaneously held official positions in the party and received salaries from the European Parliament’s funds, which is prohibited by European law.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban expressed his support for Le Pen by posting a short message on the social network X, Je suis Marine, similar to Je suis Charlie, which became a symbol of solidarity and support for freedom of speech after the terrorist attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015.
What do you know about Le Pen?
She is the leader of the far-right populist political party National Rally. This political force is against the EU and reducing the number of new immigrants.
The party also criticizes anti-Russian sentiment in Europe and does not support sanctions against Russia. In 2014, Le Pen proposed to federalize Ukraine, called Russia a great nation and said that the United States was waging a cold war against Russia.
“The European Union has added fuel to the fire by helping to turn the rebellion into a revolution, making people believe that Ukraine could join the EU, which is not true. The people of Europe do not want this,” she said at the time.
Also in 2014, Le Pen’s political party took out a loan of more than 9 million euros from the bank of Russian Gennady Timchenko for the election campaign. This happened after other banks in Europe, Asia, and the United States refused to lend to the political party.
According to the Ifop sociological center, Le Pen has the highest rating in the next presidential election in 2027, with 34% to 37% of the votes of those who intend to vote.
