Marine Le Pen barred from seeking public office after embezzlement conviction

Ms Le Pen will be ineligible for running for public office for a period of five years with immediate effect

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arriving at a Paris court on Monday morning for the verdict in an embezzlement case. Picture: AP Photo/Thibault Camus

A French court has convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years – a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.

Speaking to French TV channel TF1 in her first reaction to the verdict, Le Pen called the ruling a “political” move aimed at preventing her from running in the 2027 presidential election and said that millions of French people “are outraged”.