​​​​​​​ISTANBUL

The French Council of State confirmed far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s automatic resignation as departmental councilor in Pas-de-Calais after she was sentenced to prison earlier this year.

"The Council of State rejects Ms. Marine Le Pen’s priority question of constitutionality (QPC) raised in the context of her appeal against the prefectural order declaring her automatically resigned from her position as departmental councilor of Pas-de-Calais," it said in a statement Monday.

It ruled that the Electoral Code provisions applied to departmental councilors, like those for municipal councilors, are constitutional, rejecting a referral to the Constitutional Council challenging their validity.

"Furthermore, the Council of State rules that the provisions of the Electoral Code regarding the automatic resignation of departmental councilors sentenced by the criminal court to a period of ineligibility with provisional enforcement are consistent with European and international law," it added.

A court sentenced Le Pen, the head of the National Rally (RN) parliamentary group, earlier this year to four years in prison, including two years suspended, and five years of ineligibility. The ruling was related to the long-running case involving the use of European Parliament funds to pay party staffers.

Due to the provisional execution of the sentence, Le Pen is barred from running in future elections, including snap legislative polls should the French president dissolve the National Assembly.​​​​​​​