Marine Le Pen: ‘The conviction violates the rule of law’

The leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, spoke Monday evening after her political disqualification by a court. Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison, with two suspended, and five years of disqualification from running for office, which would prevent her candidacy in the 2027 presidential election. In an interview on TF1 news, the RN leader denounced the sentence as “a political decision.”

Le Pen, visibly upset and in a very aggressive tone, turned the interview into an attack on the court that issued the sentence, in which eight other party colleagues were also convicted for embezzlement of European funds. “Tonight there are millions of French people unimaginably outraged seeing that, in France, the country of the rights of man, judges are using practices that I thought were only typical of authoritarian regimes. Millions of French people are being deprived of the favorite for the presidential elections by a judge of first instance. This should shock anyone who defends democracy or the rule of law,” Le Pen said in an attempt to start warming up the spirits of her supporters.

Le Pen confirmed that she will file an appeal “as quickly as possible” because she is “innocent.” “They have eliminated me. But in reality they have done it to millions of French people,” she denounced, while raising the tone against the court. “The rule of law has been totally violated by the decision that has been taken,” she denounced, considering that “when one appeals, the appeal should have a suspensive effect” on the conviction. “The magistrate has assumed to apply the immediate disqualification, which actually means making my appeal useless in this matter to prevent me from running,” Le Pen said. The RN leader also stated her belief that the judge “obeys a slogan, an order, a climate.”

The situation for Le Pen is now very complicated. The appeal times, as she herself pointed out in her televised interview, can be dilated between 18 months and a little more than two years, which would practically rule her out of the presidential election. “Can you imagine what would happen if after the elections a judge rules that I am innocent? What legitimacy would the person elected to be president have?” she asked the journalist who was interviewing her. The opposite situation, on the other hand — that of running for president, winning the election and then being convicted — does not pose a problem for Le Pen.

“Of course I would present myself being condemned and with an appeal underway, obviously. This is a process created by political adversaries,” she stated, alluding to the plot theory.

The question is how RN will now prepare for the presidential elections. Her natural successor would be the president of the party, Jordan Bardella, whom she praised as a “formidable asset for the movement.” But Le Pen stated that she does not intend to proclaim him candidate yet. “I hope I won’t have to call on him any sooner than necessary.” Moreover, she ruled out the idea of running for the post of prime minister in such a scenario [she would not need to go through a ballot box to be appointed if the future president of the Republic were to designate her], stating that she is not willing to accept “a denial of democracy so easily.”

The path, as time goes by and there is no news on the appeal, will become narrower for Le Pen. One of the alternatives, suggested to her by the news anchor who was conducting the interview, would be to ask for a pardon from the head of state, something she flatly rejected, arguing that “the pardon is applied on a final decision.” She expressed confidence that an appeals court would analyze the case with neutrality and conclude that “there was nothing to reproach,” her for. Her conviction, she added before concluding the interview, does not mean “in any way” the end of her political career.

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