The leader of the right-wing National Rally party faction in the French parliament, Marine Le Pen, on TF1 television, called the sentence requested for her in the case of the fictitious hiring of party assistants in the European Parliament “political death.”
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“It (the prosecutor’s request) is excessive in the extreme because it requests a sentence that is incomparable to other similar charges being requested, going so far as to demand my political death with immediate execution,” she said.
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The charge in the case of fictitious hiring of assistants to the National Rally party in the European Parliament requires punishment in the form of the inability to be elected to government bodies for all of its defendants, the sentence must take effect immediately. In relation to the leader of the faction in the French parliament, Marine Le Pen, this measure has been requested for five years. If the court approves the immediate entry into force of the sentence, Le Pen will not be able to participate in the presidential race in 2027.
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The prosecutor’s office also requested a prison sentence for Le Pen for a period of five years, three of which are suspended, two cannot be appealed, but can be replaced by a less severe preventive measure, for example, serving the term with an electronic bracelet at home. Thus, the leader of the National Rally in the French parliament will not go to jail. The prosecution also demanded that Le Pen be ordered to pay a fine of 300 thousand euros, and the party itself as a legal entity – a fine of 2 million euros.