“It is my political death that is being demanded,” Marine Le Pen said on TF1 on Friday. The day before, a sentence of ineligibility with immediate execution was requested against her by prosecutors during the trial of the assistants of RN MEPs.
The prosecution also requested, against the three-time unsuccessful presidential candidate, five years of imprisonment, two of which will be fixed, and a fine of 300,000 euros. The defense pleadings are expected on Monday and the judgment must be rendered in early 2025.
A “political death sentence”
“My political survival, obviously, will depend on the implementation of this political death sentence, with provisional execution or not,” said Marine Le Pen during an interview with the 8 p.m. newspaper. “And this is, I believe, the aim from the start of this operation which was launched by a socialist, Mr (Martin) Schulz, (at the time) President of the European Parliament, in agreement with the socialist Mrs ( Christiane) Taubira, Minister of Justice at the time,” she continued.
By evoking an “outrageous” indictment and “out of all proportion to the slightest indictment of the same type”, the member for Pas-de-Calais expressed a “feeling of revolt”, according to her also felt by “millions of French”, “and even beyond my own political camp, since the indignation aroused by this indictment has in some way crossed the entire political class”. The Macronists Gérald Darmanin, Christian Estrosi and Karl Olive, but also Jean-Luc Mélenchon expressed their reservations regarding the idea of a sentence of ineligibility with immediate effect.
A “political target”
“In reality, I realized that it was not the litigant who was being judged, that it was the political target who was being judged,” protested the woman who appeared alongside 24 other defendants, suspected of having hired assistants to MEPs whose missions were in fact for the sole benefit of the far-right party.
Asked about a desire to “put pressure on the justice system”, while the RN notably launched an online petition to protest against these requisitions of the prosecution, Marine Le Pen replied “Never in my life”. “But we had to give the opportunity to those who were outraged […] to express this indignation, but in the most peaceful way possible, that is to say through a petition,” she further justified herself.
