France: Le Pens Party calls for France Protest

After the sensational conviction of the right-wing national French politician Marine Le Pen because of the embezzlement of public EU money, her party mobilizes for a protest. “I call for peaceful people’s mobilization,” said the boss of the racial emblem National (RN), Jordan Bardella, in the evening. “We will be everywhere in the next few weeks. We will show those who want to turn away from democracy that the will of the people is strongest.” Meanwhile, Le Pen announced that he wanted to appeal against the judgment.

The majority of the French, on the other hand, consider the court ruling to be fair. According to a survey by the Elabe Institute for the BFMTV station, 42 percent of the French surveyed consent to the court decision, 29 percent. Another 29 percent were neutral.

With immediate effect, a Parisian criminal court had imposed a banned ban against Le Pen for five years to compete in elections and probably made its planned candidacy impossible in the 2027 presidential election. This caused vertebrae far beyond France, because this punishment immediately applies before the appeal announced by Le Pen is decided.

In addition, the court sentenced the 56 -year -old to two years in prison on Monday with electronic ankle – the exact details of the design of the punishment remained unclear. Two more years in prison were suspended. In addition, a fine of 100,000 euros was imposed. These punishments are only executed when the judgment is final.

The process dealt with the affair about the apparent activity of assistants by several French MEPs from Le Pens Rechter Party National (marginalized, formerly Front National). In addition to Le Pen, eight other members of their party were guilty of the European Parliament, as well as twelve parliamentary assistants. The racial emile nationally has to pay one million euros.

The result of the process is a disaster for the right party and le with political ambitions. The temporary loss of passive voting rights is a common punishment in France if politicians are convicted of corruption and infidelity. Nevertheless, due to the great popularity of Le Pen, it is a delicate.

The question on the day after the judgment will be in particular how Le Pens party is now positioning itself and what steps it will take. In addition to the call to protests, the racial emblem nationally started a petition against a “dictatorship of the judges” she described as this said, as media reported. The party’s homepage with the link to the petition could not be achieved for hours – it was initially not known whether this was related to a technical problem.

Is judgment of political crisis?

It was already evident that the verdict has an explosive in order to reappear the political crisis smoldering in France. Several politicians also critically commented on Le Pen by the court judgment of access to the presidential election. According to media reports, Prime Minister François Bayrou should also be among them.

The justice of the right -wing populists – Le Pen spoke of a political judgment, which is more likely to be expected in an authoritarian regime – the socialists called on the scene. The party started a petition in favor of the judiciary as a pillar of democracy. “The socialist party would like to reaffirm that nobody is above the law, especially not those who are striving for the highest office in the state,” said a message.

Allegation of the interference of the judiciary in politics

Marine Le Pen had given herself combative and announced in an evening TV interview, as quickly as it goes to make an appeal with the aim of possibly reaching a more favorable appeal decision for her in good time before the presidential election. “I am not ready to submit to a refusal to democracy so easily,” she later posted it at X. “No judge can decide to interfere in such an important choice as the presidential election, especially while violating the rule of law.”

However, Le Pen also seems to be possible that her fourth candidacy for the presidential office remains adjusted by the judiciary and signals that she is already sending her political foster son Bardella (29) into the race. As if he wanted to emphasize the trusting gang, Bardella posted a photo in the evening on which Le Pen and he hugged himself.

It is considered unlikely that an appeal process will come to a quick result. Rather, a year -long gait through the judicial authorities is likely to follow. Until the end of the election period, Le Pen can continue to sit as a member of parliament, where she is the group leader.

The US government was concerned about the court decision against Le Pen. “As a West, we have to do more than just talk about democratic values. We have to live them,” said the spokeswoman for the US State Department, Tammy Bruce, on the verdict. The exclusion of people from the political process is particularly worrying.

US President Donald Trump compared the temporary exclusion of Le Pen in elections with the situation in the USA. “It’s a very big deal. I know everything about it,” he said in the White House. “She was banned to run for five years and she is the top candidate. That sounds like this country,” said Trump.

Trump is likely to allude to the fact that plaintiffs had tried in several states to prevent his participation in the party internal primaries for the US presidential election. The background to the argument was the unprecedented attack on the US parliamentary seat on January 6, 2021. Trump follers had violently stormed the Capitol in Washington. The Supreme Court finally decided that Trump could take part in his party’s primary elections. The Republican was elected to the candidate of his party and subsequently won the presidential election in November.

Racial emblems nationally than ever

The right -wing party in France will hit the debacle in court at an unfavorable moment, because for a while it has been constantly represented on the advance and in parliament for a while. The right-wing extremist Front National, founded by her recently died father Jean-Marie, named Marine Le Pen 2018 in racial emblems nationally and waived too radical positions in order to make them selectable in broader layers of the population. Le Pen ran for the presidency three times, and in the last two elections she came to the runoff election.