Importance Score: 65 / 100 🔴
It is a sentence that has prompted anger among rightwing leaders across the world and led to accusations that democracy is being threatened. This week, Marine Le Pen, the parliamentary leader of the National Rally (RN), the largest opposition party in the French parliament, was banned for five years from public office for embezzlement. Along with more than 20 others, she was found to have used money for European parliament assistants to pay party workers.
The shock sentence could end Le Pen’s hopes of running for president in 2027. She is now appealing and has hit back furiously, as have her supporters and allies. Some of her support could hurt her more than it helps, however. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said in response that “more and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms”. While Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán have also weighed in.
Angelique Chrisafis, the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, tells Helen Pidd how this could play out. RN has tried hard to detoxify itself and distance itself from its antisemitic past under the leadership of Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, she says, and has also positioned itself as an anti-corruption party.
But will supporters think this reputation is now in tatters – or could it lead to conspiracy theories? Chrisafis says it is hard to say whether the court case will hinder or help the far right in France. “I think this is an absolutely historic moment for France,” she says, “and it’s not quite clear where that’s going to lead”.