The Paris prosecutor on has requested a five-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office for the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, at a trial in which she and 24 others are accused of embezzling EU funds. The trial, which comes almost a decade after initial investigations started, threatens to undermine her National Rally (RN) party’s efforts to polish its image before the 2027 presidential election, which many believe she could win. On Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor requested a €300,000 (£249,439) fine, five years in prison and an ineligibility sentence against Le Pen, with provisional execution – meaning