The court’s decision, handed down as part of her sentencing, takes effect immediately — even if Le Pen files an appeal, according to the report. The ruling could have major implications for France’s 2027 presidential election,

A sentence handed down on Monday, in a trial over the misuse of European Parliament funding, bars Le Pen from running for public office for five years. Her party, the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration National Rally, criticised the decision as an attack on democracy.

Marine Le Pen, the figurehead of the ascendant far-right political movement in France, was hit with a non-custodial prison sentence and barred from running in elections for five years on Monday as a court found her guilty of embezzling European Union funds to pay members of her National Rally party's staff.