BUDAPEST, September 8. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes that Marine Le Pen, head of the parliamentary faction of the National Rally party, was stripped of the right to run in France’s 2027 presidential election due to concerns about her potential success at the polls.
"They don’t allow Marine Le Pen to run for office for one simple reason: she would win," Orban wrote on his X page, stressing that using the judiciary as a political weapon has no place in democratic states.
On March 31, Paris court sentenced Le Pen in the parliamentary assistants’ case to four years behind bars, with two years suspended and the other two to be served under electronic monitoring. The court also ruled to bar her from holding elected office and running in elections for five years. This measure, unlike the prison term, took effect immediately and can only be lifted if her appeal is successful. It does not apply to her current mandate as a member of the National Assembly (the lower house of parliament), but requires her to vacate all other elected positions.
The Paris court’s ruling has banned Le Pen from running in the 2027 presidential election. Le Pen called the decision politically motivated and filed an appeal with a higher court. The appeal ruling in the case is expected by the summer of 2026.