French populist Marine Le Pen declared that “nothing” will stop her running for the presidency as a trial over alleged misuse of EU funds threatens to bar the National Rally leader from the next election.
On Monday, Le Pen joined 26 other current and former members of the National Rally (RN), including her father and party co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, over allegations of embezzlement of European Union funds.
The charges, dating back to 2018, allege that the younger Le Pen and other members of her party fabricated employees in the European Parliament and diverted their salaries back to France to finance domestic political activities.
The National Rally leader faces up to ten years in prison if convicted. She would also be deprived of civic rights for up to five years, meaning that Le Pen could potentially be disqualified from running for president in 2027, likely ending her long-time quest for the top job in Paris.
The three-time former presidential candidate is widely forecast as the frontrunner to replace President Macron in the Élysée Palace in 2027 when the arch globalist will be term-limited out of the running.
Defiantly striking out ahead of the trial, the three-time former presidential candidate is quoted by Le Figaro as saying: “Nothing will stop me from running in the presidential election.”
Upon entering the courtroom in Paris on Monday, Le Pen told the press: “We didn’t break any rules… We have a lot of arguments to develop to defend what appears to me to be the parliamentary freedom which is at issue in this affair.”
The trial comes amid increasing political divisions in France. In July’s snap legislative elections, called by Macron in the wake of an embarrassing defeat to the National Rally in the EU Parliament elections, the Le Pen party secured the most votes of any party.
However, as a result of a strategic voting alliance made before the second round of voting between Macron and the leftist New Popular Front (NFP), in which candidates selectively stood down in favour of the one with the best chance to defeat the RN challenger, the National Rally was blocked from gaining a governing majority in the National Assembly.
Although Macron had entered into an alliance with the leftist bloc during the elections, the crafty political operator quickly discarded the New Popular Front and refused to enter into a government coalition or appoint their preferred option for prime minister.
Instead, the French president dusted off 73-year-old former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and installed him in the Hôtel Matignon as the country’s new prime minister.
Barnier, a member of the centrist Les Républicains, promptly staffed out his new government with mostly Macron loyalists, meaning that despite the president’s faction coming in third place in the legislative elections, Macron maintained his grip on power.
Yet, with the National Assembly sitting in an effective three-way split, it is unclear if the Barnier government will be able to effectively govern or if it will collapse again like its predecessor, which only managed to survive several months.
With looming fights over the country’s budget crisis, pensions, and mass migration, Le Pen said this week that she is “convinced” that another legislative election will be forced next year, when the constitutional time limit for dissolving parliament expires.
“It’s untenable,” Le Pen is quoted as saying. “The great country that is France cannot function this way.”
