Fact-check: How common is Le Pen's ban from public office?

Last month, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, was found guilty of embezzling EU funds and barred from running for political office in France for five years, causing a political firestorm.

Her €100,000 fine and four-year prison sentence — of which two are suspended and the other two served with an electronic bracelet — will be put on hold until the appeals process is exhausted.

However, this is not the case for her ban from public office or “ineligibility sentence,” which comes into force immediately despite her appeal.

This is because that part of her sentence has been “executed provisionally” under French law.

As things stand, Le Pen is prohibited from running in the 2027 French presidential ballot. However, a Paris appeals court has said it will make a ruling by summer 2026, which could see her acquitted or her sentence modified.

The court’s decision has drawn scepticism from across the political spectrum. For one, centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou has said he was “troubled” by the verdict.

But is the decision to apply the ban immediately despite appeal common in France and Europe?

Immediate public office ban is ‘rare’ in France, experts say

Le Pen was prosecuted under a law known as “Sapin II” that was voted in 2016 and came into force on 11 December 2017. It foresees a ban on running for public office for five years for any elected officials found guilty of misusing public funds.

The sentence means Le Pen must relinquish her role as regional councillor of the northern department of Pas-de-Calais. Her term as member of the National Assembly for the same region is not affected, however, as the French Constitutional Council is the only body with the power to sever a member’s term.

According to data provided to Euronews by the French Ministry of Justice, 16,364 “ineligibility” sentences were delivered in France in 2023. Such sentences have become more frequent in recent years: a total of 1,518 were handed out in 2019.

The proportion of those enforced provisionally, or in other words right away despite appeal, as in Le Pen’s case, has consistently been very low.

Of those handed out in 2023, just 639 (3.9%) came into effect immediately.

“The fact that the sentence of ineligibility handed down to Marine Le Pen was provisionally enforced is indeed a rather rare decision,” Jean-Baptiste Thierry, professor of law at the Université de Lorraine, told Euronews.

To apply the sentence in this way was “the subject of a lengthy statement of reasons,” Prof Thierry said, “based on Marine Le Pen’s denial of the importance of the offence for which she was convicted.”

“It’s difficult to consider that the judges made a decision that would be exceptional in this case, given they were the facts of the case were exceptional facts,” he explained.

“They were faced with the case of a defendant who committed particularly serious acts, they decided to show severity, which they justified in their sentencing decisions.”

What about other European countries?

According to Guillaume Baticle, a legal fact-checker, the French legal provision that allowed Le Pen’s ban to be enforced immediately is an outlier in Europe.

“France is really the exception in Europe, but this is the case elsewhere in the world, notably in Brazil (…) on the question of the ‘provisional execution’ of a sentence,” he told Euronews.

In 2023, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro received a sentence barring him from running for public office until 2030.

Baticle added that most European countries apply the concept of “suspensive appeal,” meaning the sentence does not apply as long as it is under appeal.

Could Le Pen’s ban be lifted?

Despite all this, Le Pen could still run for president in 2027 if her appeal is successful and decided in time for the ballot.

A Paris appeals court has said it will decide her case by summer next year, keeping her hopes alive.

If the appeals court clears her of any wrongdoing, Le Pen could enter the presidential race in time. That means there is little pressure on her to immediately name a replacement candidate, such as her party’s president, Jordan Bardella.

A criminal defence lawyer told Euronews earlier this month that the timing of her appeal is a “cautious solution” designed to “mitigate criticism of the effects of the immediate effect of the ruling.”

Such a sentence could also be cleared by presidential pardon once the appeals process is completely exhausted.

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