ECHR rejects Marine Le Pen's request to suspend her ineligibility sentence

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Wednesday rejected Marine Le Pen's request for an interim measure filed the day before, seeking to suspend the ineligibility sentence imposed on her by the Paris Criminal Court .

"The Court rejects Marine Le Pen's application on the grounds that, in any event, the existence of an imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right protected by the (European) Convention on Human Rights or its protocols has not been established," said the ECHR, based in Strasbourg.

The latter did not rule on the substance of the case, but rejected the request filed by the head of the RN under Article 39 of the Court's Rules of Procedure: the ECHR then rules urgently in the event of an imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right protected by the Convention.

Marine Le Pen rightly believed that there was an urgent need to suspend her ineligibility sentence, in case Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly again .

Marine Le Pen regretted this ECHR decision on X "on the grounds that the infringement of my rights is not imminent, which would, however, be the case if a dissolution took place. Beyond this interim relief, the Court is seized on the merits of the lack of an effective remedy for the provisional execution of a sentence of ineligibility," she wrote on the social network.

The president of the RN group in the National Assembly was found guilty on March 31 by the Paris Criminal Court of having set up a "system" of embezzlement of public funds to pay employees of her party, the National Front (since renamed the National Rally ) with money from the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016, for an amount of 4.4 million euros.

In addition to the ineligibility sentence, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced her to four years in prison, two of which were suspended. Twenty-four other defendants, including the party as a legal entity, were also sentenced. Half have appealed.