A French court on Monday, March 31, convicted far-right leader Marine Le Pen on charges of embezzlement of public funds. She was sentenced to a five-year ban on running for office, effective immediately, putting her bid to run in the 2027 presidential election in jeopardy. She was also given a four-year prison term, but will not go to jail, with two years of the term being suspended and the other two to be served at home with an electronic bracelet, the court ruled.
Moscow's reaction to the verdict was swift. "More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We do not want to interfere in France's internal affairs and we have never done so," Peskov said. "But our observation of European capitals shows that they do not shy away from stepping outside the bounds of democracy in the political process," he added. Le Pen has long faced accusations of being too close to the Kremlin, of advancing Russian narratives and of relying on Moscow for political and financial support.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, voiced support for Le Pen: "Je suis Marine!" the nationalist leader posted on X, in French.
Reacting on his platform X, Elon Musk said the court's decision would "backfire," comparing it to Donald Trump's felony conviction in 2024. "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."
Donald Trump Jr., the son of US President Donald Trump, also took to X to comment on the court decision. "France is sending le Pen to jail and barring her from running?! Are they just trying to prove JD Vance was right about everything?" he wrote. In a speech in Munich in February, Vice President Vance had lambasted European democracies for, he said, censoring free speech.
Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini denounced "a declaration of war by Brussels" as the source of Marine Le Pen's conviction. "Those who fear the judgment of the voters are often reassured by the judgment of the courts. In Paris, they have condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to exclude her from political life. A bad film that we are also seeing in other countries like Romania," said Salvini, leader of the far-right Lega party, in a statement.
Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders expressed shock at the court ruling against Le Pen, pledging his "100%" support. "I am shocked by the incredibly tough verdict against [Le Pen]. I support and believe in her for the full 100% and I trust she will win the appeal and become President of France," Wilders posted on X, in English.
The president of Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) party, Le Pen's lieutenant Jordan Bardella, said, on X, that she was the victim of an "unjust" verdict and added that French democracy was being "executed." He also called for a peaceful "mobilization," in a post on X: "With our popular and peaceful mobilization, let's show them that the will of the people is stronger."
RN ally Eric Ciotti denounced an "outrageous judicial cabal" that "confiscates the democratic destiny of our nation," in a post on X, after Le Pen was sentenced on Monday. He added: "Is France still a democracy?" "It's a system for capturing power that systematically rules out any candidate too far to the right who is in a position to win, from François Fillon to Marine Le Pen."
A member of Prime Minister François Bayrou's entourage told Agence France-Presse (AFP), confirming a report in Le Parisien, that Baryou was "troubled by the verdict." He does not, however, intend to make "any comment on a court decision," the source told AFP.
Other leaders, meanwhile, were more critical: "When you give everyone lessons in exemplarity, you have to start by applying it to yourself," said Green party leader Marine Tondelier on Monday. Le Pen "must pay her penalty," as she is "a person subject to the law like any other," Tondelier added, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). The ban on running for office "is a provision of the law. When it was voted on in the Assemblée, Marine Le Pen did not oppose it, did not vote against it. So she's just like any other person subject to the law," concluded the Green leader.
La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) said in a statement that it "notes that the facts which have been declared proven are particularly serious [and] entirely contradict the slogan 'heads high, hands clean' on which this party has long sought to prosper."
"We take note of this court decision, even if we refuse on principle to accept that it should be impossible for anyone to appeal. As for the rest, La France Insoumise's means of action has never been to use a court to get rid of the Rassemblement National," added the movement, which is opposed to sentences banning people from running for office.
LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on X that he agreed with the statement put out by his party, adding that "the decision to remove a politician from office should be decided by the people."
The conservative MP Laurent Wauquiez, who is in the running to become the next president of the right-wing political party Les Républicains, said that the decision put a "very heavy weight on the functioning" of French democracy. "It's not healthy that, in a democracy, a politician is banned from running in an election, and I think that political debates should be decided at polling stations," he said.