The News
Marine Le Pen, France’s most prominent anti-immigration hardliner, protested her five-year ban from running for president but stopped short of wider criticism of the country’s judiciary.
Speaking at a sparsely attended rally in Paris, Le Pen told supporters that the guilty verdict against her over embezzlement was a “political decision,” and promised to appeal.
The remarks point to her efforts to widen her nationalist party’s appeal, efforts that had left her in pole position ahead of 2027 presidential elections prior to last week’s ruling.
The guilty verdict was justified, wrote the historian Timothy Garton Ash, but the sentence has raised concerns: The decision risks undermining the rule of law and “may actually help the hard right… win,” he wrote.