The far right protests against the threat of Marine Le Pen’s ineligibility, her opponents call to “respect justice”

“Relentless” against Marine Le Pen and “attack on democracy” : The prosecution’s searches in the trial of RN parliamentary assistants provoked, on Wednesday, November 13, a wave of protests on the right of the political spectrum, including the former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. In response, several voices were raised to denounce this political interference in a judicial process still underway whose deliberation is expected in early 2025.

The prosecution requested five years in prison, including two years in prison, a fine of 300,000 euros and five years of disqualification against Marine Le Pen, judging her ” center “ of a “organized system” destined to turn the European Parliament into the “cash cow” of the RN. If the court follows the accusation, the penalty of ineligibility, accompanied by provisional execution, would be applicable from the conviction, even in the case of appeal.

The leader of the National Group, a three-time presidential candidate (2012, 2017 and 2022), sees the call for her ineligibility as an intention to stop her political rise. “The only thing that interested the prosecution was Marine Le Pen, in order to request her exclusion from political life.” (…) and then the National Assembly, in order to ruin the party”stated the head of the RN deputies after the searches.

Comforted by the steady rise of the RN in recent years, even after the dissolution of the National Assembly following the European elections in June, Marine Le Pen is now aiming for 2027. Two and a half years before the presidential elections, the impeachment manifesto “a desire to deprive the French of the possibility of voting for whoever they want”said.

“The accusation is not in justice: it is in the ruthlessness and revenge against Marine Le Pen”adds RN president Jordan Bardella in X. “Their scandalous requisitions aim to deprive millions of French people of their vote in 2027. It is an attack on democracy”he assured.

Gérald Darmanin in support

Like the party president, many RN elected officials have posted photographs of themselves with Marine Le Pen in X under the hashtag #JeSoutiensMarine. The vice president of the RN, Sébastien Chenu, echoed this Thursday denouncing “a prosecutor’s office at the service of a political mission”. “In what country would we live in which the main female politician would be prevented from (…) so I can introduce you? » His fellow deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy denounced “almost fanatical requests” about France 2.

The same indignation among the other components of the nationalist right and the French extreme right. “The course of French democracy must not be confiscated from voters again”launched Eric Ciotti, evoking the precedent of François Fillon, who had to renounce his candidacy for the presidency in 2017 after suspicions of fictitious employment of his wife, a case for which he was definitively declared guilty in April. “The democratic destiny of our nation must be decided at the polls and not in politicized courts”insisted the former president of the Republicans, who joined Marine Le Pen’s camp in June.

“What a scandal!” Marine Le Pen must be able to run in the presidential elections »alleged, for her part, Sara Knafo, a European deputy from Zemmour’s party, Reconquête!, and the sovereigntist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan also saw in it a desire to “gag the French people”.

A rare voice outside the realm of the far right to speak, Gérald Darmanin also considered that “fight M^me Le Pen is finished at the polls, not elsewhere”. “If the court judges that she should be condemned, she cannot be condemned electorally, without the expression of the people”declared in X, calling no ” dig “ further “the difference between the “elites” and the vast majority of our fellow citizens”.

Let us remember that the ineligibility of elected officials in case of conviction was voted by the representatives of the people in 1994. The law that provides for the embezzlement of public funds will be punished with the mandatory penalty of ineligibility appears in article 131-26-2 of the the penal code, the latest version of which will come into force in 2022.

“Violation of the principle of separation of powers”

The Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, recalled on CNews that “Justice is independent and the magistrates themselves are independent, it is a constitutional principle”before insisting: “The judge does not replace political power. There is independence between the powers. »

These positions contrary to the rule of law have been openly criticized, in particular by the head of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, in “a big embarrassing wink from someone who pretends to feel sorry for the woman whose electorate he dreams of recovering” and report a “major violation of the principle of separation of powers”.

The president of Les Républicains (LR) of the Haute-France region, Xavier Bertrand, criticized the “great act of hypocrisy” played by the extreme right. “Democracy is also respect for justice”launched, recalling that in 2004, during the trial of Alain Juppé in the case of fictitious RPR jobs, where the potential presidential candidate had been affected by a ruling of ineligibility, Marine Le Pen stated: “We are tired of these elected officials embezzling money. »

Mr. darmanin “I shouldn’t have said that.”estimated this historical adversary of the three-time presidential candidate, but close to the former Minister of the Interior. “Or go ahead with your thoughts and introduce a bill to eliminate the ineligibility.”he said on RTL. “But in the meantime, the law exists, it applies to everyone and no one is above the law. »

“The law applies to everyone”added to the Public Senate the minister responsible for relations with Parliament, Nathalie Delattre, who found “It is shocking to comment on a judicial decision”.

Gérald Darmanin’s comment could be subject to prosecution under article 434-5 of the penal code, which specifies that it is possible to comment on a judicial decision, unless the author “seeks to publicly discredit (…) in conditions that could undermine the authority of justice or its independence.”