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00:00Well, here in France a difficult day today for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right
00:06National Rally Party here in France. It's been the day of the closing arguments by the prosecution
00:12in a case in which she and 25 others are accused of embezzling European Union funds.
00:20The stakes are high for Marine Le Pen if she is convicted. She could face prison,
00:26she could face a ban on holding public office which would end her chances of running for the
00:31presidency. We can now talk to France 24's Shirley Sitbon who's been following proceedings in court.
00:39She can now join us. Shirley, I gather the prosecution have asked for jail terms.
00:45Yes, five years, three suspended, also for a fine 300,000. But the most important thing
00:57is the ban from running for office. That's what you just talked about. Well, they say that Marine
01:02Le Pen should be unable to run for the next five years. And exceptionally, they said that this
01:09should be made real, be implemented right away before an appeals trial, before any kind of other
01:17appeal from Marine Le Pen or her party. And Marine Le Pen, this was extremely dramatic here as this
01:22was said, she came out after this prosecutor's request because the ruling is going to be in
01:29beginning of 2025. But she basically said that this is a scandal, especially this decision to
01:36to implement this right away. And she said, well, there's just one reason for this. And that is the
01:43prosecution wants to bar me from office, wants to stop my political career and wants to ban my
01:49voters from voting for the person of their choice for the presidency in 2027. And she says they want
01:55to ruin my party, the National Rally now, at the time the National Front. Just a brief reminder of
02:01what happened because the prosecutor said, no, we don't want to stop your career. What we want to do
02:05is apply justice. What happened is that European funds, European Parliament funds used for AIDS in
02:11the European Parliament. Well, the National Front at the time used them in France for their own
02:17party as a driver, as a bodyguard, many different jobs in France, not in the European Parliament.
02:22Now, the European Parliament brought this to court. And the prosecutors remind us that again
02:27today that this was illegal, that the National Rally could not use this money in France. It's
02:33used only for the mandate in the European Parliament. And they said, yes, it's extremely
02:39important to ban someone from running for a term, especially a presidential term. But they said,
02:43this is what we have to do because they're the ones setting the example, the elected officials.
02:49And we're doing this, well, basically to protect and defend democracy.
02:53Well, thank you very much, Shirley. Shirley Sitbon there,
02:57giving us the latest at that trial in central Paris.