The leader of the right wing French party National Rally has been barred from politics for five years on charges of embezzelment

Marine and 24 other officials from her party have been charged with using EU Parliamentary funds to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016. In addition to being banned from running for public office for five years, she will serve two years suspended prison sentence and two under house arrest with electronic monitoring, and a €100,000 fine.

Marine announced on March 31st, the same day the sentence was passed, that she will appeal her sentence, calling it a political sentence carried out by an authoritarian style regime in order to block her from the 2027 Presidential elections and silence millions of French voices. Due to the appeal, the four years arrest and fine will be put on hold, but the ban from running for public office stands. Due to this, Le Pen is eager to begin the appeal in hopes of overturning the decision by 2027. The party was also fined €2 million and several other members face smaller fines and arrests, but Le Pen will not lose her seat in the National Assembly.

Many right wing politicians across the world have condemned the decision, including American politicians President Trump and Elon Musk, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, Dutch politician Greert Wilders, Israeli minister Amichai Chikli, former Brazilian President Bolsonaro and even Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Critics of the decision draw comparison with President Trumps fraud charges and Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu’s of Istanbul corruption charges, especially with Le Pen topping opinion polls in France.