Fact-check: Is Le Pen's ban from public office an anomaly in France and Europe?
The National Rally party leader has described the court ruling that banned her from running for office as a political witch hunt". Euroverify asked experts about the legal grounds for her sentence.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/08/fact-check-is-le-pens-ban-from-public-office-an-anomaly-in-france-and-europe
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The National Rally party leader has described the court ruling that banned her from running for office as a political witch hunt". Euroverify asked experts about the legal grounds for her sentence.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/04/08/fact-check-is-le-pens-ban-from-public-office-an-anomaly-in-france-and-europe
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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00:00How common is Le Pen's ineligibility sentence?
00:08Last month, a French court found Marie Le Pen of the far-right National Rally Party
00:13guilty of embezzling EU funds and banned her from running for public office for five years.
00:20So, as things stand, she is barred from running in the 2027 French presidential election.
00:25But is the decision to ban her from public office immediately a rarity?
00:55According to data provided to Euronews by the French Ministry of Justice,
01:00of the 16,364 ineligibility sentences handed out in 2023 in France, only 3,9% were executed immediately, as in Le Pen's case.
01:13One expert told us this immediate execution is also uncommon across Europe.
01:19And that's what all European countries apply, it's the suspenseful call, that as soon as you call a decision,
01:26the condemnation does not apply, until the definitive condemnation.
01:31And the French exception, which we find in Brazil, is that the judge can apply directly this plea, even when the person calls.
01:41Le Pen's sentence has sparked a lively debate in France with figures across the political spectrum questioning it.
01:47A proposal to remove provisional execution from French law could even be debated in Parliament.
01:53This means to exchange evidence.