Marine Le Pen’s Party Goes on Trial in France on Embezzlement Charges

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and over 20 other people went on trial in Paris on Monday on charges that they embezzled funds from the European Parliament between 2004 and 2016.

The trial, in a Paris criminal court, is scheduled to last two months and is an unwelcome distraction for Ms. Le Pen. She will have to be in court at a time when her National Rally party has acquired immense political sway in France following last summer’s parliamentary elections.

The accusations that the party illegally used several million euros in European Parliament funds for unrelated partisan expenses have been known for nearly a decade, but they have done little to hobble National Rally’s rise as a xenophobic, nationalist party.

A conviction, though, could deal a severe blow to the political ambitions of Ms. Le Pen, who is a representative in France’s Parliament, as she prepares her fourth presidential run, in 2027. It could also derail her efforts to bring her party further into the mainstream, although it is unlikely to weaken its current power in the lower house of Parliament.

Ms. Le Pen, who was a European Parliament lawmaker from 2004 to 2017 and has served in France’s Parliament since then, is charged with embezzlement and complicity in embezzlement. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison, a maximum fine of 1 million euros (about $1.12 million) and could be barred from public office for up to a decade. The National Rally itself is also charged in the case, as is allowed under French law.

“I don’t think that this can kill the party,” said Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on the far right at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, noting that French voters are currently focused on the country’s ballooning debt and deficit, possible tax increases and immigration policy.