French government moves to ban top political rival from politics
French prosecutors have asked a court to ban Marine Le Pen from politics over embezzlement claims.
Le Pen heads the Right-wing populist National Rally (RN) party and is the main political threat to the Macron administration. After RN handily surpassed President Emmanuel Macron’s Rennaissance Party in the European Parliament elections in June, Macron has been working to reform political alliances to prevent Le Pen from becoming president in 2027. RN remains the largest party in France’s National Assembly.
For almost six weeks, Le Pen and 24 other RN party leaders have been on trial over allegations that they paid staffers with EU funds instead of the party’s coffers, an accusation that Le Pen denies. The prosecution has asked the court to ban Le Pen from politics for five years — which would take her out of the 2027 presidential election — and to imprison her for five years. Prosecutor Nicolas Barret requested that the ban take effect immediately upon a guilty verdict, even if Le Pen appeals.
The prosecution is also seeking a fine of €300,000 ($317,000).
‘No one is above the law’
Patrick Maisonneuve, one of the EU prosecutors, defended the request: “I often hear the elected members of the National Rally when it comes to a theft of €50, saying that justice must be swift, it must be firm, it must be severe.”
“So, when we have embezzled, because that is what it is, €4.5 million to the detriment of the European Parliament, therefore of taxpayers and in particular French taxpayers. Let’s not cry scandal,” he added, claiming that the prosecution’s aim is to ensure that no one is above the law.
Le Pen, however, believes she is the target of a political witchhunt.
“The only thing that interested the prosecution was ‘Marine Le Pen’ . . . asking once again for her exclusion from political life and to deprive the French . . . of the ability to vote for whoever they want,” she said.
Trump, AfD, and now Le Pen
Netizens took to social media to compare the prosecution of Le Pen to the politically motivated lawfare against President-elect Donald Trump and Germany’s attempts to ban AfD, its main political rival.
The Right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has gained wild popularity across Germany, continues to be targeted by the government and its allies. A media-wide smear campaign backed by the country’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP) has painted AfD politicians as Nazi sympathizers. As a result, party members have been beaten, harassed, censored, surveilled, and jailed.
The German government has called for AfD to be banned from politics and has obtained court approval to place the party’s members under surveillance due to “racism.” Its members have been banned from banks and stripped of their gun rights.
