Right-Wing European Allies Condemn Court Verdict Against Le Pen

European hard-right leaders have condemned the court verdict against Le Pen, which banned her from running for political office for five years.

Marine Le Pen is an icon of France’s nationalist right: one of the country’s best-known and most popular political figures – with her France First, anti-woke, anti-migration agenda.

Hard-right leaders, currently growing in support across much of Europe, view her as “one of the gang” – even if they don’t see eye to eye on every issue.

Many of these leaders took to social media on Monday, after Le Pen was banned, having been accused, alongside others, of embezzling over $4m (£3.1m) of EU funds for use in France by her National Rally party.

For them, this was an opportunity, not simply to show support for Le Pen but to use her case to highlight what they see as their common cause – a struggle against a politically traditional mainstream, that seeks to muzzle or undermine their nationalist agenda.

But for Le Pen, this could be the death knell of her long-cherished ambition to become French president. She’d been riding high in the polls ahead of the next election, scheduled in two years’ time.
She and her political associates insist they’re innocent. They’re appealing against the verdict.

In a flamboyant show of solidarity on Monday, Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, declared in a post on X in French “Je suis Marine” (“I am Marine”).

Populist Geert Wilders, the leader of the Netherlands’ largest political party, posted on X he was sure Le Pen would win her appeal and that she would be France’s next president.

Italy’s hard-line deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, also took to social media: “We are not intimidated… full speed ahead, my friend!”.

“Those who fear the judgment of voters often seek reassurance from the courts. In Paris, they have condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to remove her from political life”, he wrote.

France’s courts deny they are politicised. They say their job is to administer justice. Many in France, 57% according to a poll by BFMTV, believe that justice was served in the Le Pen case without bias.

But a suspicion that the court was biased – determined to block the political success of self-declared voice-of-the-people Le Pen – was echoed by supporters in and outside France on Monday.

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma