This Friday, March 28, the Constitutional Council is due to issue a long-awaited decision on the immediate execution of a sentence of ineligibility, in the context of a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) filed by a local elected official in Mayotte. While this case appears to have no connection with Marine Le Pen, it is of great interest to the president of the National Rally group in the National Assembly.
Sentenced in June 2024 to a sentence of ineligibility with provisional execution, Mahoran municipal councilor Rachadi Saindou was declared to have resigned by the prefect the day after the decision, although he had appealed. His lawyers are contesting a measure deemed "irremediable" and disproportionate, even though appeals had not been exhausted.
Towards a jurisprudence with major political consequences?
Marine Le Pen will learn on Monday, March 31, whether she has been convicted in the National Front parliamentary assistants case. The prosecution has requested a five-year prison sentence (two of which are suspended) and, more importantly, a five-year ineligibility period, effective immediately. If the judges follow this request, the leader of the largest opposition group in the National Assembly would be unable to run in the 2027 presidential election. Such an outcome, still hypothetical, would raise the unprecedented question of a major political impediment for the candidate of a party polling at over 30%.
Even if the Constitutional Council does not rule on Marine Le Pen's case, its conclusions on the principle of immediate execution could establish a line of case law. And in the current context, any decision opening the way to the early disqualification of a candidate of national stature, before the final outcome of a trial, could fuel criticism of a worrying democratic imbalance.
Especially since, until now, the Constitutional Council has consistently refused to deprive an elected official of their mandate before all appeals have been exhausted. As recently as 2023, several parliamentarians were able to remain in office despite being sentenced to ineligibility with provisional execution, due to an ongoing appeal or cassation. This protection of electoral law is something that Marine Le Pen's defense hopes to see renewed.
A final conviction remains, in any case, the only legal way to prohibit a citizen from standing as a candidate in a national election. In the absence of such a decision, depriving voters of the opportunity to choose a major political figure would, in the eyes of many legal experts, constitute a serious breach of the fundamental principles of representative democracy. The Paris Criminal Court's judgment will be delivered on Monday. But by then, the decision of the Sages of Rue de Montpensier could already outline a crucial direction.
