French right-wing leader Marine Le Pen is awaiting a sentence after a national court convicted her and other members of her National Rally party of embezzlement on Monday.

The conviction of one of the most powerful figures of the European far right for embezzling EU Parliament funds has sent shockwaves around the continent and beyond. But Marine Le Pen's case is just one example of transparency problems that have plagued the legislature.

Marine Le Pen has been a superstar of Europe’s far-right movement until a spectacular court ruling banned her from running for the French presidency in 2027.

After the far-right leader was found guilty of embezzlement and barred from running for office, her supporters cried foul. Was justice served or politicized?

It was a good day for French democracy but the far-right may still win the 2027 presidential election, writes Cole Stangler.

PARIS (AP) — For years, Marine Le Pen stood at the gates of power — poised, relentless and rising. She stripped the French far right of its old symbols, sanded down its roughest edges and built in its place a sleek, disciplined machine with the single goal of winning the country’s presidency.

The far-right French politician was a leading candidate to become the country’s next president, but has now been barred from running for public office for five years.

As the verdict was being read by the judge, Marine Le Pen sat stony-faced in the dock at the Paris criminal court next to her National Rally colleagues on trial for the misuse of public funds.

A French court has barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years for embezzlement in a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes.