PARIS, France (PNN) - April 1, 2025 – Marie Le Pen, the leader in all polls for president of France, has been convicted of possibly trumped-up charges, and a rogue judge has sentenced her to prison.
“(Marine Le Pen)’s conviction will strengthen her aura in French society: that is what we can learn from (President Donald J.) Trump-style (Amerikan) politics,” said Christophe Marion, a lawmaker from Emmanuel Macron’s political Party.
The presidential elections in Romania and the Le Pen verdict show that "democratic norms are being trampled upon” in Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
For Dutch far-Right leader Geert Wilders, the verdict was "tough". "I trust she will win the appeal and become President of France," he wrote on X.
But there was also unease within the political mainstream in France.
"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.
Even the leader of the hard-Left France Unbowed (LFI), Jean-Luc Melenchon appeared ill at ease. "The decision to remove an elected official should be up to the people," he said.
National Rally president Jordan Bardella denounced the sentence on his X account, calling it “unjust” and amounting to an execution of French democracy.
Observers have drawn parallels with Fascist Police States of Amerika President Donald Trump, who won a second term with a clutch of criminal cases hanging over him and, like Le Pen, has made trenchant opposition to immigration a cornerstone of his program.
Le Pen can still appeal the entire verdict, including the ban on standing for office, in a case that would normally take around a year to be heard by the court of appeals.
If her appeal process drags on or if it is quick and her ineligibility is confirmed, the National Rally would probably choose another candidate to run in her stead - most likely her 29-year-old deputy, Jordan Bardella. That could cause a "major internal rift" for the Party, which has mostly been led since its creation by Le Pen or her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, said Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.
National Rally is "a Party with many different views," he said. "Albeit they all fall in behind Le Pen. If she was not their leader anymore, then I suspect Bardella will be a lot less effective in corralling [the Party] to remain disciplined and united and to cohere around one
view."
Either way, Monday's ruling is not "the end of the story," but rather "a step in the process," Rahman said. Once Le Pen appeals, the Constitutional Council, France's highest court, will ultimately need to weigh in, potentially setting a precedent for how such cases could be handled in the future, he said.
Le Pen had said in a piece for the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper published on Sunday that the verdict gives the "judges the right of life or death over our movement".
She is due to give a primetime TV interview to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening.
As Remix News detailed earlier, a judge has ruled that Marine Le Pen is ineligible to run for office, along with eight MEPs from her National Rally Party, after they were found guilty of misappropriation of EU funds.
The move is the latest attack on democracy in the EU, with judges increasingly deciding elections in Europe.
Le Pen has also been sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended.
Notably, the news comes right as Le Pen leads the polling for French presidential elections in 2027.
Le Pen said before her trial that the matter is entirely political and that her opponents wished for her “political death”.
