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.
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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.
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That, more than anything else, should have disqualified her and her party beyond appeal.
