From the correspondent in Strasbourg – The Patriots (PfE) are “shocked” by the ineligibility conviction for Marine Le Pen, which they consider a democratic vulnus orchestrated by Brussels at the hands of the judiciary. This was stated by Kinga Gál, deputy group leader of the ultranationalist group in the EU Parliament, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing plenary session in Strasbourg.
The party partner of Viktor Orbán returned this afternoon (April 1) to the ruling, which exploded yesterday on French politics like a ticking time bomb, issued by the Paris court against Marine Le Pen, leader of the deputies of the Rassemblement National (RN) in the French National Assembly and president of the party from 2011 to 2021, when the post passed to her probable successor, Jordan Bardella.
The historic leader of France’s far-right has been convicted of embezzlement of European Parliament funds, thus effectively being excluded from the 2027 Elysee race, in which she was given as the favourite in the polls. “The Patriots group is shocked by the court’s decision,” Kinga Gál sounded off at a press conference, arguing that France’s “model” as a “promoter of democracy” in the world “is dying” because of what she brands as a political trial of an “inconvenient” candidate for the establishment.
Le Pen’s exclusion from the presidential election “is not worthy of a democratic state that claims to uphold the rule of law,” pressed the Fidesz MEP, going so far as to lament as “unworthy” the fact that they are “letting the judiciary and not the voters decide who can be a candidate in the elections.”
A “worrying trend,” she says, that links Paris and Bucharest, where elites are making “recourse to justice against patriotic leaders” (the reference here is to the ouster of Călin Georgescu from the Romanian presidential elections). “The EU is always eager to lecture member states on democracy and the rule of law but remains silent on these practices“, which, Gál provokes, were thought to be exclusive to authoritarian regimes. The Patriots “strongly support Marine Le Pen and the Rassemblement national,” she concluded. The RN is the largest national delegation within the nationalist group in Strasbourg.
In addition to the demonstrations of solidarity with Le Pen (including those of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Matteo Salvini), those of Giorgia Meloni and Donald Trump have also arrived in recent hours.
Le Pen has refuted categorically that she wants to leave the political scene. Indeed, she has announced that she will fight against the decision of the Parisian magistrates and that, therefore, she will not resign to handing the sceptre of command to her lieutenant Bardella: the RN president (and head of the Patriots’ group in Strasbourg) is “an excellent resource” that she hopes “not to have to use sooner than expected.”
For now, the rising star of the transalpine far-right denies planning to replace her in the upcoming presidential election. But yesterday’s ruling may have opened the succession game at the top of the radical right in France ahead of time, even if there are many doubts within the party about the suitability of a 29-year-old who has never held government posts.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
