OAN Staff Blake Wolf
5:55 PM – Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Right-wing French leader Marine Le Pen was recently banned from running for political office for five years, while additionally receiving a four-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges.
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Le Pen was the frontrunner to win the next election prior to the sentencing, however, the court found her and others in the National Rally Party guilty of “misusing $4.9 million European Parliament funds.”
Twenty other members within the National Rally party were also charged with taking European Parliament money to pay workers within the party.
Nine members of the European Parliament and 12 assistants were found guilty.
Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis stated that Le Pen’s conduct showcased a “series and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France,” adding that her ban on running for public office was due to “democratic public unrest.”
Le Pen soon responded to the decision, calling it a “political ruling.”
“The magistrate made it very clear that enforcing the temporary sentence barring me from seeking public office, rendering my appeal void and would prevent me from running and getting elected, she said, in the presidential election.”
“There are millions of French people who are outraged, outraged to an unbelievable extent when they see that, in France, the country of human rights, judges were implementing practices that we thought were typical of authoritarian regimes,” she continued.
“I think they chose to ignore all of the explanations that were given because, in the very first hours of this trial, I had understood that the court was biased against us. I did not think the magistrates would go this far against our democratic process and interfere this much with the choice of the French. Let’s be clear: I have been silenced but it’s the voice of millions of French people that have been silenced as we speak tonight,” Le Pen added. “I’m going to pursue every avenue of recourse that I can.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk responded to the news in an X post, stating that “when the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents.”
“This is their standard playbook throughout the world,” he continued.
Additionally, President Donald Trump responded to the news after being questioned by a reporter, seemingly comparing the situation to the corruption plaguing Washington, D.C.
“That’s a big deal. She’s been banned from running for President despite being the leading candidate. That sounds like this country.”
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