Le Pen (L) and French far-right party RN vice president Louis Aliot (R) walk outside the courtroom during a break in their trial on Wednesday. /Geoffrey Van Der Hasselt/AFP
The Paris prosecutor has requested a five-year prison sentence and the same length ban from public office against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, at a trial where she and 24 others are accused of embezzling European Union funds.
The trial comes almost a decade after initial investigations started and threatens to undermine her party's efforts to polish its image ahead of a 2027 presidential vote many believe she can win.
On Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor requested a 300,000-euro ($316,860) fine, five years in prison and an ineligibility sentence against Marine Le Pen, with provisional execution. If the court finds her guilty of the charges with this provisional execution, Le Pen will not be able to run in elections even if she appeals the judgment.
As she left court, Le Pen told reporters: "I note that the prosecution is being extremely outrageous in its demands, particularly with the request for provisional execution, which it wants to impose on everyone being prosecuted."
Le Pen, the RN party itself, and 24 others - party officials, employees, former lawmakers and parliamentary assistants - are all accused of using European Parliament money to pay staff in France who were working for their party, which at the time was called the National Front. All deny the charges.
The National Rally, like other far-right parties around Europe, is riding high following a strong performance in European elections in June.
Prosecutor Nicolas Barret told the court the ban would "prohibit the defendants from running in future local or national elections."
Of his demand for a five-year jail sentence for Le Pen, Barret called for at least two years of that to be a "convertible" custodial sentence, meaning there would be a possibility of partial release.
The prosecution also demanded the RN be fined two million euros ($2.1 million) and Le Pen herself 300,000 euros ($315,000).
Le Pen accused prosecutors of trying to "ruin the (RN) party." She added: "I think the prosecutors' wish is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for who they want."
The alleged fake jobs system, which was first flagged in 2015, covers parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors say the assistants worked exclusively for the party outside parliament.
European Union flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. /Johanna Geron/File/Reuters
Addressing the trial last month, Le Pen said she was innocent.
"I have absolutely no sense of having committed the slightest irregularity, or the slightest illegal act," she told the court.
Prosecutor Louise Neyton told the court earlier in Wednesday's hearing her team was "not here to persecute" but as the result of a "long judicial investigation".
'Organized' embezzlement
She and Barret presented evidence that they said showed an "organized system" of embezzlement by which the party had aimed to "save money".
Questioned last month about how exactly she selected her presumed parliamentary aides, and what their tasks were, Le Pen gave general answers, or said she could not remember.
European Parliament authorities said the legislature had lost three million euros ($3.4 million) through the jobs scheme.
"I am not surprised by the prosecution's request for provisional execution. There is a consistency in the prosecution's demands," Patrick Maisonneuve, the European Parliament's lawyer, said.
The RN has paid back one million euros ($1.05 million), which it insists is not an admission of guilt.
The trial lasts until November 27.