The former Minister of the Interior reacted to the decision of the Paris prosecutor's office which requested a sentence of ineligibility against the leader of the deputies of the National Rally.
This Wednesday, November 13, the Paris prosecutor's office requested a sentence of ineligibility against Marine Le Pen, accused of having embezzled funds from the European Parliament for the benefit of her party. The prosecution also requested five years in prison, two of which could be reduced, against the three-time candidate in the presidential election. The National Rally MP denounced “the violence of the requisitions” of the prosecutor, leaving the court.
For Gérald Darmanin, MP for the North and former Minister of the Interior, “it would be deeply shocking if Marine Le Pen were deemed ineligible and, thus, could not stand before the vote of the French”.
“Let’s not be afraid of democracy”
“Fighting Madame Le Pen is done at the ballot box, not elsewhere. If the court judges that she must be condemned, she cannot be condemned electorally, without the expression of the People,” wrote Gérald Darmanin on X.
“Let us not be afraid of democracy and let us avoid widening, even further, the difference between the 'elites' and the vast majority of our fellow citizens,” concluded the former tenant of Place Beauvau.
A point of view shared by the main interested party. In front of the press, Marine Le Pen estimated that “the desire of the prosecution is to deprive the French of the ability to vote for those they want”, and to “ruin the party”.
The trial will resume next Monday, with defense arguments scheduled for two weeks.
