French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for 5 years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds, in a politically explosive ruling that has shattered her hopes of winning the presidency in 2027, writes CNN.

A Paris court also handed Le Pen, who was the frontrunner for the next election, a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended, to be served under house arrest, and a EUR 100,000 fine. She can appeal but the ban will stand unless overturned by another court.

Her party, National Rally [RN], was ordered to pay EUR 2 million in fines for the EUR 4.1 million that it was accused of embezzling.

The court’s presiding judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said Le Pen’s actions amounted to a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France”. She said Le Pen’s immediate ban on standing for office was tied to “democratic public unrest” that would result from the election of a person convicted of embezzlement.

But the decision itself looks set to spark significant unrest. Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s protégé who succeeded her as RN’s president, said it was not only Le Pen “who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed.”

Marion Maréchal, Le Pen’s niece and a Member of the European Parliament for a rival far-right party, said her aunt had “led our side on the path to victory. This is her only guilt, and that is why she is condemned”.