French far-right leader seeks to reverse conviction for embezzlement of public resources and annul ineligibility penalty that threatens his presidential run
The appeal trial for misappropriation of public resources began this Tuesday (13), with which the far-right leader hopes to annul her conviction in the first instance and save her candidacy for the 2027 presidential elections.
In March, a court of first instance sentenced her to five years of immediate disqualification, a decision that shook the political board and that the president of , , considered a “witch hunt”.
The 57-year-old politician arrived at the Paris Palace of Justice, in the historic center of the capital, for the first day of this trial scheduled until February 11, without making statements to the press, journalists from the AFP.
“I hope I can convince the magistrates of my innocence,” Le Pen told the press on Monday (12), whose “only line of defense” will be “telling the truth.” “I hope they listen to me better than in the first instance”, he pointed out.
The appeal is judged while Le Pen or her political heir, Jordan Bardella, lead the polls to succeed the centrist in 2027.
In addition to Le Pen, 23 other people, including former MEPs, members and employees of the former National Front (FN), renamed Reagrupamento Nacional (RN), were also convicted, in addition to the party itself, which appealed the sentence with 13 convicts.
The presidency of France has been his goal since, in 2011, he inherited the leadership of the FN, a historic far-right party from his father Jean-Marie Le Pen, whose extremist image he managed to soften. However, the Paris Correctional Court removed her from the race in March by sentencing her to two years in prison, a 100,000 euro fine (R$628,000 at current prices) and, above all, immediate disqualification.
The judges justified the decision by the need to “ensure that elected positions (…) do not benefit from a regime of favors, incompatible with the trust that citizens seek in political life”.
The court found her guilty of having set up a “scheme” between 2004 and 2016 so that advisors from her party in the European Parliament, paid by the institution, worked “in reality” for training, something prohibited.
The French court did not reveal any personal enrichment in this case and, in the first instance, ordered the convicts to return 3.2 million euros (R$19.9 million) to the European Parliament.
‘Worrying’
Instead of denying it, the far-right leader’s lawyers, Rodolphe Bosselut and Sandra Chirac-Kollarik, will now choose to highlight that she did not intend to commit the alleged acts, according to several people close to her.
The objective of this strategy is that, in case of conviction, the sentence of disqualification or imprisonment will allow him to stand in the 2027 presidential election, in which Macron can no longer run, and campaign. The maximum sentence you can be sentenced to is 10 years in prison.
In the event of a new conviction, a last appeal may be requested from the Court of Cassation. Its first president, Christophe Soulard, assured that, in this scenario, they would try to decide before the election, “if possible”.
“It would be very worrying for democracy if the courts deprived the French of a candidate for the presidential election who has already qualified twice for the second round and today appears as the favorite,” Bardella said on Monday.
Nine months after her conviction, the image of the finalist in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections has weakened in public opinion, and her 30-year-old protégé is increasingly emerging as a likely candidate.
According to research by Verian for the newspaper The World published on Sunday (11), 49% of French people estimate that, between the two, Jordan Bardella, president of RN, has “more chances of winning the presidential election”.
*With information from AFP
Published by Nícolas Robert
