French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who is portrayed as an underdog standing in for people who are “disdained” by the political class, said to applauding fans in Paris on Sunday that she will fight the five-year ban that prevented her from running for government due to an embezzlement conviction.
Speaking to thousands of people who were chanting her name, Ms. Le Pen and her supporters blasted what they described as a “system” designed to keep their party out of power, biased judges, and restricted free expression.
Ms. Le Pen declared, “I won’t give up,” claiming that she was the victim of a politically driven “witch hunt” that would have prevented her from running for president of France in 2027.
President Trump and other prominent right-wing individuals throughout the world have attacked Ms. Le Pen’s conviction. His complaints about American courts were matched by her concerns of the French judiciary.
However, she spoke in a less abrasive manner than Mr. Trump frequently does, and the crowd did not erupt in the tumultuous rage that sparked the rioting at the Capitol in Washington on January 6. More than ten years have been spent by her party, the National Rally, trying to change its image from one of radicalism to one of smoothness and readiness for governance.
As she called for a “peaceful and democratic resistance” to the legal proceedings against her, Ms. Le Pen even evoked the spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She said that she was neither “above nor below the law.”
Speaking on a podium with the words “Let’s save democracy,” she emphasized that “there is no spirit of sedition among us, despite the delusions of our opponents.”
Several elderly supporters with French flags gathered in front of the shining golden dome of the Invalides, where Napoleon’s bones are interred, and expressed their opinion that the punishment was harsh and unjust. Few, however, were enraged, and the protest resembled an early campaign rally more than a furious demonstration.
Even if Marine did something stupid, I still support her,” remarked 74-year-old retired autoworker Jean-Louis Viardot. “The sentence was excessively severe, but she should be punished.”
Last week, Ms. Le Pen and twenty-three other members of the National Rally party were found guilty of embezzlement.
Between 2004 and 2016, her party misappropriated more than 4.4 million euros, or over $4.8 million, in funding from the European Parliament. She was fined €100,000 and given a four-year prison sentence, two of which were suspended and two of which will be served under home arrest.
For five years, she was also prohibited from running for public office. In each of the last three presidential contests, Ms. Le Pen has advanced to the second round, when she faced President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022. In Parliament’s lower and more important house, her party is the biggest by far.
The Paris Court of Appeal stated that it anticipated making a ruling by the summer of 2026 in response to Ms. Le Pen’s appeal of the verdict. She would have enough time to get ready for the presidential race if the ban were lifted.
French politicians convicted of corruption being declared ineligible is not unusual, but it is rare unless they are a front-runner for president. Ms. Le Pen was unfairly singled out, according to some of her fans.
Antoine Issa, 74, a retired public works worker from Ms. Le Pen’s northern French region, claimed that “everyone else did the same thing.” In order to transport supporters to the demonstration, buses were chartered.
