A French court of appeal has confirmed that Marine Le Pen played a central role in orchestrating a scheme that systematically embezzled public funds for more than a decade.
The case, unprecedented in French political history, involved a fake jobs scam instigated in 2004 by the leadership of the National Front, now the National Rally.
The party claimed EU salaries for staff supposedly working as MEPs' assistants at the European parliament. However, the money was funneled to France to support party activities.
Among those on the payroll as bogus assistants were Le Pen's bodyguard and longtime personal assistant. The deception continued for 11 years until 2016.
Twenty-eight defendants were brought to court, including Marine Le Pen and her late father Jean-Marie Le Pen.
The appeal court softened her initial sentence to three years of imprisonment, with two years suspended and the remaining year served by electronic monitoring.
She was fined €100,000 and declared ineligible for public office for 45 months, 30 of them suspended.
She has appealed to France's highest court, staying the tagging pending that decision.
Within hours of the ruling, Le Pen launched her campaign for the 2027 presidential election.
But the focus on whether she can run has eclipsed a necessary discussion about her legitimacy as a public representative.
According to the judges, the scam was carried out "under the decisive impetus" of Le Pen herself, having taken it over from her father.
The Paris court of appeal based its conclusion on the duration of the offenses—spanning three parliamentary terms—and the sums misappropriated: €2.8 million proven to have been misused.
The RN as a legal entity was also convicted and fined €2 million, half suspended.
Since 1988, no French presidential election has taken place without a Le Pen on the ballot.
Marine Le Pen now stands at the center of a system that contradicts the values her party has claimed to embody.
The RN campaigned under the slogan "Clean hands and heads held high," presenting itself as the party of political integrity.
In 2013, Le Pen publicly demanded lifetime bans from public office for elected officials convicted of offenses.
Yet even as she vaunted her supposedly spotless record on corruption, the scheme for which she would later be convicted was running.
The court showed leniency inconsistent with its verdict, as French law allows up to 10 years' ineligibility for such offenses.
In other professions, a criminal conviction linked to professional duties would result in disqualification.
Marine Le Pen has never expressed remorse or apologized for betraying the republican values she often invokes.
That, more than anything else, should have disqualified her and her party beyond appeal.
