Macron authorities got scared and sticks back

French right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the courtroom.
Photo: AP

A French court handed right leader Marine Le Pen a five-year ban on running for office on embezzlement charges Monday, dashing her ambitions of standing in the 2027 presidential race unless she successfully appeals. She also received a four-year prison sentence.

A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her immediately from running for office for five years. Le Pen abruptly left the Paris courtroom before hearing how long she will be banned from running for public office.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.

The fact that the French far-right leader has been found guilty of embezzling EU funds has further incensed her allies across the continent, who are all deeply suspicious of Brussels and European integration.

Marine Le Pen's protégé Jordan Bardella, who succeeded her as leader of the National Rally, has called for a "peaceful mobilisation" after today's guilty verdict.

The 29-year-old earlier said the court's verdict banning Le Pen from running in elections had "killed" French democracy.

Elon Musk, the billionaire top adviser to US President Donald Trump, called a French court ruling barring far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for election in 2027 "abuse".

"This will backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump," Musk wrote on social media.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of diverting over 4.1 million euros intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.

Le Pen denied accusations she orchestrated a system to siphon off EU money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021. She argued that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some political work related to the party.

But Judge Benedicte de Perthuis disagreed, ruling that Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” that her party used to misappropriate EU parliament money.

She was found guilty of embezzlement along with eight other people who were EU lawmakers at the time and 12 parliamentary assistants.

Le Pen will appeal her conviction for embezzlement of public funds, her lawyer said, after a court handed her a five-year ban on running for office.

"It's a blow to democracy," Rodolphe Bosselut told reporters outside her National Rally (RN) party's Paris headquarters.

"It is not healthy that in a democracy, an elected official is prohibited from standing in an election and I believe that political debates should be decided at the ballot box," said the leader of MPs in parliament of the right-wing Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez.

The leader of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) Jean-Luc Melenchon appeared ill at ease with the ruling. "The decision to remove an elected official should be up to the people," he said.

The verdict delivers a massive blow to Le Pen, a three-time presidential contender who has previously said the 2027 vote would be her final tilt at top office.

Polls have shown Le Pen to be a front-runner in the 2027 race. The RN is the biggest single party in parliament thanks to broadened support among younger and blue-collar voters.

Typically in most cases in France, sentences are not applied until any appeals process has run its course. However judges imposed an immediate five-year ban on Le Pen running for office regardless of any appeal, via a so-called "provisional execution" measure.

The provisional execution ban will not see Le Pen removed from her seat in parliament until her mandate ends, but it will prevent her from running in any fresh electoral contest, blocking her 2027 run.

“The only reason why Marine Le Pen was condemned is because she was on the road to victory,” said French right politician and Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: "I am – Marine!":

Other right-wing allies of National Rally figurehead Le Pen — from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Italian League party boss Matteo Salvini to Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders — also rallied to her defense after a stunning court decision found her guilty of embezzlement and deemed her ineligible to stand in elections for the next five years, writes POLITICO.

In Moscow, where the Kremlin is accused of crushing Russia’s democratic opposition, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that the verdict was a “violation of democratic norms.”

“In Paris they condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to exclude her from political life. A bad film that we are also seeing in other countries such as Romania,” said Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, alluding to Romanian authorities’ decision to annul last year’s presidential election first round and bar pro-Russian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu from the do-over in May.

“We will not be intimidated, we will not stop: full speed ahead my friend,” Salvini added.

“I am shocked by the incredible tough verdict against Marine Le Pen,” fumed Dutch right chief Wilders, whose party won a national election in November 2023, helping tilt the Netherlands to the right. “I support and believe in her for the full 100% and I trust she will win the appeal and become President of France.”

In Spain, far-right Vox party chief Santiago Abascal said: “They will not succeed in silencing the voice of the French people.”

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage said Le Pen has been “cancelled” on what he describes as “a very trumped-up charge,” BBC reported.

“In this country we have nine county council elections on 1 May that won’t happen, and may not happen for years. And in France, they cancelled a candidate. A candidate that would, without doubt, have won the next French presidential election. And you know what, if looks to me like a very trumped-up charge,” he said.

“This is nuts,” said former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “Lawfare is wrong whomever it targets. And it is stupid to boot. France’s neofascists will only benefit from this, just as the MAGA lot did. A panicking illiberal establishment across the West is diving headlong into a totalitarian pit,” he added.

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