Paris judges decided on Monday that Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, was guilty of misappropriation of public funds.
This was a crucial moment for Le Pen that could determine her political future.
Eight National Rally MEPs and their twelve assistants have also been found guilty.
Le Pen and 24 other National Rally members have been accused of embezzling money intended for European Parliament aides to pay staff who worked for the party over a four-year period.
Their full sentences will be read out individually by the court in the next few hours.
Le Pen, sitting in the front row of the courtroom in a blue suit, was visibly shaking her head in disapproval as the verdict was being read.
The court estimated that the European Parliament’s total loss was €2.9 million, with Le Pen personally embezzling around €474,000.
“There was no personal enrichment … but there was the enrichment of a party,” the judge said, claiming it goes against party financing rules.
“Let’s be clear: no one is on trial for doing politics, that’s not the issue. The issue was whether or not the contracts had been executed,” the judge added.
After the trial concluded in November, the state prosecutor demanded guilty verdicts for Le Pen and her co-defendants, who have denied any wrongdoing.
The prosecutor also demanded that Le Pen be fined €300,000, serve up to 10 years in prison, and, crucially, be barred from running for public office with immediate effect for five years if found guilty.
The three judges were not obliged to follow the prosecutor’s recommendations.
If they do, however, a guilty verdict for Le Pen could effectively bar her from running in the 2027 presidential race in what she described as “political death”.
Le Pen played down fears that the judges would go so far as to bar her from office immediately on Sunday, telling La Tribune Dimanche newspaper: “Personally I’m not nervous. But I can see why people think I might be.”
“The judges have the power of life or death over the movement. But I don’t think they will go so far as to do it.”
She has denied accusations she was at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, arguing instead it was acceptable to adapt the work of parliamentary aides to the needs of her party’s lawmakers.
While testifying, Le Pen told the court: “I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move.”
