By Gianluca Lo Nostro and Nicolas Delame
PARIS (Reuters) – Far-right party chief Jordan Bardella called on the French to rally this weekend to protest against a ruling that banned Marine Le Pen from running for public office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds.
Monday’s ruling was a catastrophic setback for Le Pen, the long-time National Rally (RN) leader, who had been the front-runner in opinion polls for the 2027 presidential election.
“I believe today that the French must be outraged, and I tell them: Be outraged!,” Bardella told Europe 1 radio and CNews TV over a ruling that far-right leaders said was biased and undemocratic.
“We’ll take to the streets this weekend. We’re organising leaflet distributions, democratic, peaceful, calm mobilisations,” he said, without giving details.
Bardella could become the RN’s de facto candidate for the 2027 election. But Le Pen suggested she was not yet ready to hand him the baton, saying on Monday: “I’m not going to let myself be eliminated like this.” Bardella backed her on Tuesday.
She said she would appeal as soon as possible against what she described as a politicised ruling aimed at blocking her presidential bid. Le Pen has run three times for president and had said 2027 would be her final run for top office.
The judge in the court hearing on Monday, Benedicte de Perthuis, said Le Pen had been “at the heart” of a scheme to misappropriate more than 4 million euros ($4.3 million) of EU funds.
The lack of remorse by Le Pen and other defendants was among reasons that prompted the court to ban them from running for office with immediate effect, de Perthuis said.
She was given a four-year prison sentence – two years of which are suspended and two years to be served under home detention – and a 100,000-euro ($108,200) fine, but they will not apply until her appeals are exhausted. Appeals in France can take months or even years.
The defendants were not accused of pocketing the money but rather of using it illegally to pay the party’s staff back home instead of EU parliamentary assistants. They denied wrongdoing and said the money was used legitimately.
OPINION POLL
Despite outrage over the ruling among the far right in France, Europe and beyond who were joined in their condemnation of what they called judicial overreach, an opinion poll showed a majority of French people agreed with the ruling.
Some politicians, including former Socialist President Francois Hollande, said it was important to respect the independence of the judicial system.
Fifty-seven percent of those interviewed by Elabe pollsters said the ruling was normal considering what Le Pen was accused of, while 42% considered it was politically biased.
The poll, carried out for BFM TV, also showed that 42% of voters were happy with the ruling, with 29% unhappy – while 29% did not care.
President Emmanuel Macron and his minority, centre-right government were yet to react officially.
Before the ruling, mainstream politicians including Prime Minister Francois Bayrou had said they were ill at ease with the idea that any ban on Le Pen could be enforced immediately and stop her from running in 2027.
On the streets of Paris, and in Le Pen’s stronghold of Henin-Beaumont, in northern France, reactions were mixed.
“It’s a shame, it’s a shame because we needed a different president, we needed the RN to win,” 56-year-old resident Pascal Walkowiak said.
Another resident, 60-year-old Isabelle, said: “Too bad for her. I think it’s a good thing because she made mistakes. And well, there you go, she can’t represent us, actually.”
(This story has been refiled to add the word ‘leader’ to the headline)
(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Alison Williams)
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