And she's banned for 5 years from politics.
Amazing how Brazil and now France can deal with their problem properly.
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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I'm super grateful to President Francois Hollande for introducing that law banning politicians found guilty of corruption from ever running again 🙏.
Francois Hollande gets a lot of shit, but he did good things.
I snapped a photo of him signin his book in our supermarket two years ago, he seems like a happy guy (he was there with Julie Gayet signing her book).
Good to see this verdict. If she doesn’t see the inside of a prison then I might not consider it dealt with properly.
I've already seen cryptofascist party leaders elsewhere cry out about "authoritarian and anti-democratic elimination of opponents" over this. So much projection and doublespeak.
Prosecutors last year said Le Pen's punishment should be not just a €300,000 (£250,000) fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years.
Crucially, he said the ineligibility should kick in straightaway, and not be suspended pending appeal.
The judge has not yet said what the sentence will be.
Judges could also decide not to impose automatic ineligibility with her conviction, which would leave her free to stand in 2027 during an appeals process.
The court could also give her a shorter term of automatic ineligibility - say one year - making it possible for her to run.
During the trial last year, Le Pen denied she had committed "the slightest irregularity".
There's a long tradition of corrupt/grifter types who race into office with the law on their tail. This should be another sign that immunity needs to be removed from higher offices. I'm beyond sick of seeing literal villains run and even win elections. Every such villain is using the now mainstream PR strategy of claiming to be the oppressed victim persecuted by the ["deep"] state, the scrappy underdog. I get that it's popular to be "anti-system", but none of them truly are that.
Political opponents can’t even break the law any more without being held you responsible using the centuries established legal system, with laws and repercussions clearly laid out decades prior to you committing the crime. They will go after regular Joe soap criminals next, and who’s to stop them? If we’re not careful all criminals will face repercussions for their crimes… is this the country we want?! If we’re not careful there may be no criminals left to commit crime and what will the police do then? They will be unemployed that’s what, stripped of their livelihoods and this government doesn’t care. Criminals like me put the food on the tables of hard working police officers. This authoritarian regime is absolutely dystopian.
I'm only robbing this bank to support our fine police force. The heroin is recreational though.
i agree ... if only this verdict could help uniting the French.
P.S. : 5 years of ineligibility.
One thing I didn't get: besides the boring "witch hunt" narrative, is her stance that those people didn't do work for RN or that it's fine to use EU-paid personnel for her party in France?
As far as I get it, she argues that work for a party is the same as work as an assistant in the parliament.
Le Pen has also been given a €100,000 (£82,635) fine.
Only? I thought that the European parliament estimated the embezzled funds amounted to about €7m.
Or according to this article:
saw the embezzlement of €2.9m worth of European funds.
Her party was charged for another €2m (according to this comment citing this article on another post
Lock her up! 😬
Love to see it. This will restore some confidence into the system, and is medicine against hopelessness, one of the biggest weapons of the fascists.
It will not restore the confidence in those who voted in her so you’ve convinced people who are already convinced. Le Pen is a symptom and a new one will raise in her place until actual issues are resolved. See Romania and unknown candidate catapulted into spotlight in just a few months. They’re playing whack-a-mole now and that can’t go on indefinitely. And no, Russia is not the cause, they just exploit circumstances of our own making.
Le Pen is a symptom, yes, but she was not convicted for "the wrong opinions " or whatever. This trial was not political, it was not about "convincing" anyone.
She was convincted for embezzlement of EU funds. The right is free to follow the law, but alas, they choose not to. All over the world it's clear that those forces who are in favour of fascism are also the same who constantly break the law, as was the case in Romania.
For the record, I agree that the neoliberal status quo represented by traditional conservatives and social democrats needs to die, but I simply like it when crimimals get what they deserve.
I don’t need to be convinced that Le Pen tried to cheat in many different illegal ways. I honestly don’t see her being different to many mainstream politicians but I know the type and they are usually guilty of something. One thing to worry is that this ruling was law being applied selectively,
The other worry is that Le Pen family has been in the game since the 70s but their political movement got parliamentary representation only somewhat recently. In the meantime both Le Pens made it even to the presidential runoffs. That simmering anger is very authentic for them which is a very powerful political force.
I don’t think you can diffuse this situation by taking the opponent off the board, especially given that their voters will be even more pissed. To me doing this is like kicking can down the road. Those kicking the cans are personally prepared for what comes next by enriching themselves but as a regular guy I’m kind of worried.
Now the trickier question is, is Le Pen or National Front really far right? They just voted for enshrining right to abortion in French constitution, something many liberal Eastern European governments would be opposed to. If not then what is it that’s she’s being persecuted for? French are not that concerned with Putin and would probably stomach their own Berlusconi type. Those traditional divisions make less and less sense these days but we keep reverting to those old labels.
After what I wrote I would consider myself to be concern trolling so let me end this with wishing plagues upon Marine Le Pen for aligning herself with Putin.
I understand your point, while the details of the misuse of funds that have emerged during the trial could damage the her party standing, it is also very much possible that the opposite will happen. Afterall they are populists and I would not expect them to actually agree in any wrongdoing.
Nice. Let's fuck all the nazis in the ass.