See if you can spot the cause and effect.
Le Pen Leads Poll Ahead of France’s 2027 Presidential Election – Bloomberg
France’s Le Pen sentenced to jail, banned from public office – NBC News
Democratic values are being implemented in Europe yet again. Macron pulled every dirty trick in the book to hang on to power. Now there’s yet another trick of the banana republic kind.
The judge sentencing Le Pen accused her of “a democratic bypass”, but it’s pretty obvious who’s bypassing democracy here.
I’m not Marine Le Pen’s biggest fan, but she and her party had been steadily gaining momentum. And while I’m not an expert on French law, the issue here is that her aides were being paid with EU funds, but were seen as working for her party rather than the EU. And that’s something I suspect is routine in Euro politics.
What exactly is the distinction used to determine whether her bodyguard could be paid with EU money or not? Was he working for the EU or her party? This kind of thing is absurd. And it’s the weakest possible basis for handing down a verdict that bans Le Pen from running for office for 5 years and a 4-year prison sentence (2 years suspended) that isn’t fooling anyone.
The French authorities responsible for this seemed to have learned nothing from Trump. And they’ve also made the case that her NR party is the only true opposition party.
