As long as I have been following Marine Le Pen, the sitting government has charged her with corruption every time a federal election or EU election draws near. Is this another case of Deep State using left-wing judges to eliminate right-wing opponents and thwart the will of the people in post-democratic countries?
Top French court rules political bans are legal, delivering blow to Le Pen
France’s highest constitutional authority on Friday ruled that politicians can be barred from office if they are convicted of a crime. The ruling means far-right leader Marine Le Pen could face a five-year political ban if her party is convicted in an ongoing embezzlement trial.
France's constitutional court on Friday ruled local politicians can be barred from office immediately if convicted of a crime, leaving the door open for far-right leader Marine Le Pen to potentially be barred from the 2027 presidential race in an embezzlement trial concluding on Monday.
National Rally (RN) leader Le Pen, who leads polls for the 2027 presidential vote, accuses prosecutors of seeking her "political death" by asking judges to bar her from office for five years if convicted.
Should Le Pen receive a so-called "provisional execution" ban, which would be effective immediately even if she appeals, she would be unable to stand in the 2027 election.
She has denied wrongdoing.
Robin Binsard, a lawyer who represents another disbarred politician, said the court's ruling was "absolutely" negative for Le Pen as "the judges retain the possibility of ordering ineligibility with provisional execution".
The court in Friday's case dismissed a challenge from a disbarred Mayotte councilman who disputed the legality of his "provisional execution" ban, which means having to quit their jobs immediately if convicted, rather than waiting for an appeals process to run its course.
In its ruling, the court said the "provisional execution" of an ineligibility sentence did not infringe on rights such as freedom of expression and so was legal.
In Le Pen's case, prosecutors have asked judges to impose an immediate five-year ban regardless of any appeal, via the same "provisional execution" measure.
A provisional execution ban would not see Le Pen removed from her seat in parliament until her mandate ends, but it would prevent her from running in any fresh electoral contest.
Le Pen, the RN and some two dozen party figures are accused by prosecutors of diverting over 3 million euros ($3.27 million) of European Parliament funds to pay staff working for the party in France.
The defendants say the money was used legitimately and that the allegations incorporate too narrow a definition of what a parliamentary assistant does.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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It's not that there is no corruption in the French government, it may have to do with who gets caught. Such is the case in many countries in the world. It seems that all those getting caught are right-wingers while prosecutors have little interest in pursuing lefties. Just my guess, mind you.
French prosecutors request 7-year jail term for former president Sarkozy in Libya trial
French prosecutors on Thursday requested a seven-year jail term for former president Nicolas Sarkozy who is accused of illegally accepting funds for his successful 2007 presidential campaign from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
French prosecutors requested Thursday a seven-year prison sentence for former president Nicolas Sarkozy in his trial on charges of accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
In exchange, then finance minister Sarkozy is suspected of agreeing to help rehabilitate the Gaddafi regime, which at the time remained internationally isolated as a pariah state.
The former president is accused of accepting some €50 million in cash from Gaddafi, more than double the legal campaign funding limit of €21 million at the time. France has strict caps on what candidates can spend on a political campaign and only contributions from French citizens or residents of France can be accepted.
Sarkozy, 69, was president from 2007-2012. He denies the charges against him, which include illegal campaign financing, embezzlement, corruption and other crimes.
During the 12-week hearing, “a very dark picture of a part of our Republic has emerged”, said prosecutor Sébastien de la Touanne as he claimed Sarkozy engaged in a “frantic quest for funding” to satisfy a “devouring political ambition”.
Sarkozy had “contested the facts” and “does not seem to appreciate the seriousness of the breaches of probity” of which he is accused, the prosecutor said.
As well as jail time, prosecutors also recommended a fine of €300,000 ($330,000) and a five-year ban on holding office for the ex-president.
Sarkozy later posted on social media that the prosecution's request was "an outrage", calling the allegations against him both "false" and "violent".
"I will therefore continue to fight step by step for the truth, and for my faith in the wisdom of the court," he said.
Sarkozy said during the trial that he had never accepted any money from Kadhafi.
"You will never ever find a single euro, a single Libyan cent, in my campaign," he said.
The former president was already convicted and jailed for one year in a separate influence-peddling case, a sentence he is currently serving with an electronic tag rather than in prison.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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Where is Deep State (read: George Soros) in this mess? I'll bet he's there somewhere.
Interpol considering arrest warrants for Serb leaders – media
Interpol has reportedly issued international arrest warrants for the president and the parliament speaker of Republika Srpska - a Serb-majority region within Bosnia and Herzegovina - the Serbian ‘Politika’ newspaper reported on Thursday.
According to the outlet, President Milorad Dodik and Speaker Nenad Stevandic have been accused of attacking the constitutional order and violating the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While the arrest warrants have been distributed to Interpol member states by the organisation’s Balkan office, they have not been approved by the Interpol General Secretariat, Politika noted.
Following a brutal civil war Bosnia and Herzegovina was divided into two self-governing entities, the ethnically Serbian Republika Srpska and a federation run by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Croats, under the US-brokered 1995 Dayton Agreement. The country is ruled by a three-member presidency – a Bosniak, a Serb, and a Croat.
Earlier this month, Bosnian prosecutors issued arrest warrants for Dodik, Stevandic as well as Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, accusing them of launching an “attack on the constitutional order” by enacting laws that restrict the operations of Bosnia’s state-level judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
A Sarajevo-based court sentenced Dodik to one year in prison last month for obstructing decisions made by Bosnia’s constitutional court and defying the authority of international envoy, German national Christian Schmidt.
Dodik has claimed that the charges against him are politically motivated and said he would reject the court’s decision and prohibit the enforcement of its rulings on the territory of Republika Srpska.
The cases against Dodik have also sparked a backlash in neighboring Serbia, whose Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin asserted that Belgrade would prevent the detention of Republika Srpska’s top officials and described Sarajevo’s moves as a “continuous attempt at revenge” against Dodik and the Serbian people.
Moscow has also denounced Dodik’s conviction, calling it an “absolutely political” decision by the Bosnia and Herzegovina judiciary based on a “pseudo-law” pushed through by Schmidt.
“These actions could lead to destabilization,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned, stressing that such steps could have “very negative consequences not just for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but for the Balkans as a whole.”
EU candidate’s pro-Western government arrests autonomous region’s leader
A vocal critic of Moldova’s pro-Western government, who leads an autonomous region in the EU candidate state, has denounced her arrest on what she claims to be fabricated criminal charges.
Yevgenia Gutsul was taken into custody on Tuesday evening at the international airport in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, with the authorities saying she was on a wanted list. In a statement released through her lawyers on Thursday, she accused the government of pursuing a plan to dismantle the region of Gagauzia’s autonomy through lawfare targeting her administration.
“I am behind bars now under trumped up charges, yet my heart and my soul is with you,” she said, addressing the people of Gagauzia.
”This arrest is not a personal attack. It’s part of Chisinau’s grand plan to destroy our autonomy. Law enforcement officials controlled by the [ruling party] PAS have been trying to put pressure on me with bogus criminal cases for two years,” she added.
Sound familiar? It's always the anti-west politicians who are charged with corruption. And it is always for a political purpose, a purpose that aligns with western Europe's goals.
According to Moldovan media, Gutsul was taken into custody as part of an investigation into the 2023 gubernatorial election in Gagauzia, which she won. Her campaign was accused of financial irregularities. The Moldovan government claims that Gutsul is part of a Russian influence operation aimed at disrupting the country’s attempts to become a member of the EU.
The Gagauz people are a Turkic-speaking, primarily Orthodox Christian ethnic group living in the southern part of Moldova, Their region, Gagauzia, has been granted broad self-government rights. Moldovan President Maia Sandu has questioned Gutsul’s mandate as governor, denouncing her former party ‘Shor’ as a “criminal organization.” In 2023, a court in Chisinau outlawed it.
Gutsul has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to apply pressure on the Sandu administration in defense of Gagauzia’s rights.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov condemned the arrest, asserting that Chisinau “has decided to pay no heed to the law, democratic principles and political pluralism and to openly pressure political rivals.”
He compared the approach to that of the Romanian government, where a presidential election was recently overturned after a surprise first round victory by an opposition candidate. The constitutional court’s decision was based on claims that Russia interfered in the process, but media reports suggested that the social media campaign cited by officials originated from the ruling party, which sought to undermine a mainstream candidate by boosting an unlikely outsider.
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