In total, eight MEPs and their 12 assistants were found guilty of embezzlement, in addition to Le Pen, and all are barred from standing for public office for a period of five years. The party was also fined two million euros.
Until a decision is reached on Le Pen’s appeal, the current MEP and vice-president of the RN remains in office, but must resign from her post as a councillor for the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France and cannot stand for any other office, notably her seat in the National Assembly should there be new parliamentary elections in the near future.
As Miguel Baumgartner, a commentator for CNN Portugal, points out, Le Pen can appeal this ruling twice – first to the Court of Appeal and subsequently to the French Supreme Court. Experts such as Julien Hoez, a French analyst and editor of The French Dispatch, believe that this ruling could mark the beginning of the end of Marine Le Pen’s political career. For Baumgartner, it is still too early to declare her “political demise”. “I hope that in the end it will be, but there is still a lot to be written about this.”