Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN), has termed a court verdict barring her from running for government for five years a “witch hunt”. I will not give up,” she assured hundreds of flag-waving fans on Sunday in Place Vauban, near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
On Monday, she was found guilty of assisting in the embezzlement of €2.9 million (£2.5 million) in EU funding from 2004 to 2016 for the benefit of her party. Le Pen has appealed. At the event on Sunday, she claimed the ruling was a “political decision,” adding: “We are not asking to be above the law, but to not be below the law.
Bardella, the head of the RN party, told the crowd on Sunday that the court verdict was “a direct attack on democracy and a wound to millions of patriotic French people”. He stated that he did not wish to “discredit all judges,” but argued that the ruling against Le Pen was intended to “eliminate her from the presidential race” in 2027.
On Sunday, Gabriel Attal, the president of French President Emmanuel Macron’s moderate Renaissance party, answered, ” You steal, you pay. Attal also condemned “unprecedented interference in French affairs,” citing support for Le Pen among various right-wing leaders, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
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