The Council of State confirmed, Monday, November 10, the automatic resignation of Marine Le Pen from her mandate as member of the Pas-de-Calais department council, which was announced by the prefect after the right-wing leader was sentenced to ineligibility in March. Marine Le Pen challenged, before the highest administrative court, the decision of the Lille administrative court, which had rejected her appeal against the prefecture’s resignation order, by also refusing to pursue the priority question of constitutionality.
The National Rally (RN) leader believes that legislative provisions have led to his automatic resignation “does not respect the principle of equality before the law because of the difference in treatment between members of departmental councils and members of parliament whose mandate is revoked only if there is a definitive punishment for unfitness”. However, these election regulations are still applied “as consistently interpreted by the jurisprudence of the Council of State, to the effect that a local elected official sentenced to ineligibility by provisional execution shall be automatically dismissed by the prefect”argued the senior judge.
The State Council further noted that the Constitutional Council had declared, in March, “Legislative provisions applicable to city council members are consistent with the Constitution”that’s the situation “similar” with department advisors.
The appeal hearing is from January 13 to February 12
On October 15, the highest administrative court rejected another appeal from Marine Le Pen, who challenged the immediate implementation of her ineligible sentence, and refused to raise the first priority question of constitutionality.
Tried alongside other RN members in the MEP’s parliamentary assistant affair, the three-time presidential candidate was sentenced on March 31 to four years in prison, including two years under an electronic bracelet, and fined 100,000 euros and ineligible for five years, jeopardizing his candidacy for the 2027 presidential elections. He is accused of being at the heart of a system implemented to pay party employees with money from the European Parliament, amounting to 4 million euros between 2004 and 2016.
The appeal hearing is scheduled to take place from January 13 to February 12, and a decision is expected about four months later. If the sentence is confirmed, Marine Le Pen cannot “obviously not” to run in 2027, he agreed Thursday in an interview with a right-wing monthly magazine Speaker. “I will make a decision whether I will be present or not when the appellate court’s decision is handed down.”he added, discarding the hypothesis of a prolonged delay in the event of an appeal to the Supreme Court, “so as not to jeopardize Jordan Bardella’s candidacy if he goes there”.
