The France Thread: Oui Oui, Bonbons and all that bad stuff 🇫🇷 | 25-03-31 : Marine Le Pen barred from running after embezzlement case

mastermind

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Liu Kang said:
At la Trinite sur Mer, in Britanny. The Le Pen family have a private section of some sort in the cimetery in that town.

Where will you go in France ?
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Some time in my life

The next couple of years. We will visit Europe.
 
Liu Kang

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www.france24.com

French Court bans far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for office

A French court has found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of misusing EU funds to pay staff from her National Rally party between 2004 and 2016 and followed up the verdict on Monday with a sentence…
www.france24.com www.france24.com

French Court bans far-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for office
France

A French court has found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of misusing EU funds to pay staff from her National Rally party between 2004 and 2016 and followed up the verdict on Monday with a sentence barring her from running for office immediately, possibly dashing her political ambitions of standing in the next presidential race.

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. 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 biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 -- a scenario she had described as a “political death.”

The Constitutional Council ruled Friday, in a separate case, that imposing the punishment immediately was constitutional.

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.

During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.

“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.

With Le Pen unable to run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.

Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021.

She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some highly political work related to the party, which was called the National Front at the time.

While testifying, Le Pen told the court: “I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move.”

Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant.

Prosecutors asked the court to declare Le Pen guilty, requesting a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility.

Le Pen said she felt they were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president.

The Kremlin on Monday slammed the ruling as 'violating democratic norms'.

"More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing when asked about the decision.

Prosecutors also requested a guilty verdict for all the other co-defendants, including various sentences of up to one year in prison and a €2 million ($2.2 million) fine for the party.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)
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'An attack on democracy' - Europe's right-wing​

3 minutes ago
09:03 GMT -3

Geert Wilders, Dutch far-right leader:
"I am shocked by the incredible tough verdict against (Marine Le Pen). I support and believe in her 100% and I trust she will win the appeal and become President of France."
George Simon, hard-right Romanian presidential candidate:
"Targeting or annihilating your political opponent by any means is straight out of the instruction manual of totalitarian regimes. This happened today in (France)."
Tom Van Grieken, leader of Belgium's far-right Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang:
"When nationalist politicians gain popularity, the system seeks other non-democratic ways to silence them. What is happening in France today is an attack on democracy. (Marine Le Pen) can continue to count on our support!"
Santiago Abascal, President of Spain's far-right Vox party:
"They will not succeed in silencing the voice of the French people."
Click to expand...

'Je suis Marine!' - right-wing reactions​

an hour ago
08:07 GMT -3

avatar.jpg
avatar.jpg

Gianluca Lo Nostro and Makini Brice
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán:
"Je suis Marine!" (I am Marine)
President of Le Pen's far-right National Rally party Jordan Bardella:
(Translated from French)
"Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that that was killed."
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, of the far-right League party:
(Translated from Italian)
"Those who fear the judgment of the voters often find reassurance in the judgment of the courts."
He called the outcome a "declaration of war by Brussels," saying, "We will not be intimidated, we will not stop: full steam ahead my friend!"
Eric Ciotti, former president of the centre-right Republicans:
(Translated from French)
"The democratic destiny of our nation confiscated by an outrageous judicial cabal. The favored candidate in the presidential election prevented from running. This is not a simple dysfunction. It is a system to capture power that systematically throws aside any candidate that is too far on the right and who has a chance of winning."
Eric Zemmour, president of the far-right Reconquest Party:
(Translated from French)
"It is not for judges to decide who the people must vote for. Whatever our disagreements, Marine Le Pen is legitimate to present herself for the vote."
Click to expand...

Marine Le Pen Verdict Live: French far-right leader banned from public office

Europeans like
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