ECHR rejects Le Pen’s bid to suspend
election ban
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected veteran right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen’s request to suspend a five-year ban on her standing in elections, including the 2027 presidential race, which stems from an embezzlement conviction.
“In any event, the existence of an imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right protected by the Convention or its protocols has not been established,” the court wrote in its press release on Wednesday.
In March 2025, a French judge found the former leader of the biggest opposition party, National Rally (RN), guilty of misusing public funds intended for assistants to the RN members of the European Parliament; they were instead used to pay staff in France. Le Pen has denied any wrongdoing and appealed the verdict, which she calls politically motivated.
Le Pen ran for president in 2017 and 2022, losing both times in a runoff to President Emmanuel Macron. The National Rally is currently the third-largest party in the National Assembly.
On Wednesday, police raided RN headquarters in Paris as part of an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations and fraud. RN leader Jordan Bardella denounced the searches as an attempt to “destabilize the party and drive it into financial ruin.”
US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have publicly voiced support for Le Pen, which the French authorities dismissed as meddling in domestic affairs.
================================================================================================
French authorities raid National Rally HQ over alleged finance crimes
National Rally President Jordan Bardella said on X Wednesday that "about 20 financial brigade police officers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, accompanied by two investigating judges," arrived at RN HQ at around 2:50 a.m. EDT and ostensibly seized "all emails, documents, and accounting records of the leading opposition party."
2:50 a.m. EDT is 8:50 a.m. European Summer Time
He further claimed his group wasn't informed about what led to the seizure.
"This operation, spectacular and unprecedented, is clearly part of a new harassment campaign," Bardella said. "It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic alternation."
The Parisian prosecutor's office has explained the investigation is intended to determine if the National Rally in any way financed its campaigns through illegal loans between 2020 and 2024.
So, it's basically a fishing trip by the government. More political games to destroy the opposition.
No one has been charged in connection to the Wednesday raid but does come about three months after former RN leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of misusing European Parliament monies and sent to prison.
"Suspecting our activists," said Bardella in a follow-up X post Wednesday, "who lend to the RN due to the lack of banks willing to do so, of 'illegally practicing the profession of banker' is a farce."
He went on to allege that the RN headquarters raid was a political stunt.
"Nothing to do with justice, everything to do with politics," he concluded.
That's how it's been from the beginning, Jordan. The corrupt use of the justice system against democracy.
================================================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment