Le Pen reported 250,000 people signed a petition in her support

A petition in support of the leader of the French party "National Union" Marine Le Pen against the background of her threatened sentence in the case of fictitious employment of party assistants in the European Parliament has been signed by about 250 thousand people. This was stated by the politician herself on November 20.

"The petition that was launched in my support and collected 250 thousand signatures in a few days is a peaceful act that allows everyone who wishes to do so to express their indignation," the party leader said on the social network X (former Twitter).

Earlier, Le Pen compared the sentence to political death. The prosecution demands punishment for the politician in the form of a ban on being elected to state bodies for five years. If the court approves the sentence, she will not be able to participate in the presidential race in 2027. The prosecutor's demand is incomparable to other similarly requested charges, she said.

On November 14, BFM TV reported that the Paris prosecutor's office demanded a five-year prison sentence for Le Pen, of which three years would be suspended, two with an electronic bracelet.

Prior to that, on September 30, Le Pen's trial began in France. She was charged with "misuse of public money" of the European Union from 2004 to 2016. The trial will take place at the correctional tribunal in Paris.

Le Pen has run for president three times in her career: in 2012, 2017 and 2022. During the last two campaigns, she reached the second round of the election, but lost both times to Emmanuel Macron.

This year, the right-wing coalition led by Le Pen's Rassemblement Nationale won 143 seats in France's parliamentary elections.