French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Tuesday, April 1, accused authorities of aiming to prevent his Rassemblement National (RN) party from taking power after Marine Le Pen, the party’s figurehead and former presidential election candidate, was banned from running in elections for five years. Le Pen has pledged to fight the court-imposed prohibition, which appeared to exclude her goal of seeking and potentially winning the French presidency in a 2027 election.
“Everything will be done to prevent us from coming to power,” Bardella said, in an interview on the CNews television channel and Europe 1 radio station. He blasted the “tyranny of the judges” but also condemned “the threats, abuse and insults” directed at them. Bardella compared the decision to a move in Romania to bar far-right candidate Calin Georgescu from running for the presidency, after elections last year were annulled over alleged Russian interference. The RN leader said a “peaceful” protest would be held this weekend.
Le Pen was convicted, on Monday, of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament, taking advantage of expenses earmarked for employing parliamentary assistants who were actually working for her party in France. Le Pen was barred from running for office for five years and given a four-year prison sentence, although she will not go to jail, as half of the prison term was suspended and the rest will be served with an electronic bracelet. Twenty-four people – including Le Pen – were convicted, all of them RN party officials or assistants.
One of France’s top two public prosecutors denied that there was a political element to Monday’s decision. “Justice is not political, this is not a political decision but a legal one, delivered by three independent, impartial judges,” Rémy Heitz told RTL radio station. He also hit out at the “inadmissible (…) very personal attacks against the judges and the threats that could lead to criminal prosecutions.”