France’s Council of State has confirmed a lower court’s decision to strip Marine Le Pen, a leading figure of the National Rally Party (RN), of her mandate as a member of the Pas de Calais department council after being found guilty of corruption.
According to local media reports, the Council of State said that the Lille Administrative Court’s verdict stripping Le Pen of her parliamentary mandate “is in line with European and international “
In July, the Administrative Court of Lille ruled that a five-year ban on participation in elections imposed on Le Pen for corruption automatically entails the deprivation of the mandate of a member of the department council, and rejected the appeal of the far-right politician.
The essence of the case
In the case of embezzlement of European Union (EU) funds, the Paris Criminal Court on March 31 handed down a sentence against the far-right leader: a five-year ban to hold elected office, four years in prison (two years suspended, two years under electronic monitoring) and a fine of 100 thousand euros.
The court decision means that Le Pen will not serve her sentence in prison; her lawyers appealed the verdict.
Elected in 2021 as a member of the council of the Pas-de-Calais department, Le Pen was stripped of her mandate on April 18 after being found guilty of corruption.