Hungary in mind, many voices were raised this Monday, March 31 in the extreme European right and beyond to denounce the fate of Marine Le Pen, condemned by French justice to five years of ineligibility for embezzlement of public funds.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a close advisor to US President Donald Trump, denounced an “abuse of the judicial system”, warning against “a return of stick”. Donald Trump Jr, the son of the White House boss, reacted to his X account: “France sends Le Pen to prison and forbids him to appear?! Do they just try to prove that JD Vance was right on the whole line?”, A reference to the virulent criticisms of the American vice-president against European democracies.
The Kremlin, for its part, had deplored a “violation of democratic standards” earlier. “Our observations of what is happening in European capitals show that we do not hesitate at all there to go beyond the framework of democracy during a political process,” reacted his spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov.
The leader of the National Rally (RN), who will appeal, now sees her future seriously compromised while she was a favorite for the 2027 presidential election after three unsuccessful attempts. “I am a marine!” Launched in a rallying cry on X her Hungarian ally Viktor Orban. For the nationalist Prime Minister, she joined the ranks of the “patriots”, according to him of a cabal, like Donald Trump or Matteo Salvini.
A “Declaration of Brussels War”
The Italian Deputy Prime Minister, who himself dealt with his country’s justice, called for “not being intimidated”. “For all, my friend!”, He wrote. He denounced the “Declaration of Brussels War”, to the sources according to him of the condemnation of Marine Le Pen, accused of having taken charge by the European Parliament of people who actually worked for the RN.
Faced with the verdict deemed political courts, all called to continue the fight. “They will not be able to silence the voice of the French people,” warned the leader of the Spanish party Vox Santiago Abascal. In February he had invited the French elected official to Madrid, alongside Viktor Orban and other leaders of the Patriotic Parliamentary Group for Europe, who has in a message on X mentioned an “alarming authoritarian drift within the EU”.
In the Netherlands, the boss of the far right Geert Wilders said he was “shocked” by an incredibly severe judgment. “I am convinced that she will gain appeal and that she will become president of France,” he said on X.
The only exception in this European concert, the alternative party for Germany (AFD), interviewed by AFP, did not wish to react, the RN having distanced itself from this training with very radical positions due to various scandals.
Comparisons made in the Romanian case
This script of ineligibility recalls recent political events in Romania, where the far -right candidate Calin Georgescu was dismissed from the presidency race by the Constitutional Court. He had arrived against all expectations at the top of the first round on November 24 after an intense campaign on the Tiktok social network, a ballot then canceled due to suspicions of Russian interference during a extremely rare decision in the European Union.
Speaking of “coup d’etat”, this former highly critical senior official of the EU and NATO has since been charged and has obtained the support of Elon Musk, while the American vice-president JD Vance has castigated Romanian authorities who “so afraid of their people that they silence”.
The nationalist George Simion, a favorite of the new first round scheduled for May 4, had mentioned “a black page of our fragile democracy”. This time, he attacks a France which “targets or destroys” his political opponents, a method “straight out of the manual of instructions for totalitarian regimes”. According to the political leader of Bosnia Serbs, Milorad Dodik, “the courts have become the tools of those who fear democracy”. Under an arrest warrant for attack on the constitutional order, he also finished his message with a “I am a marine” in French, just like the former Czech Minister Andrej Babis.