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Marine Le Pen ruling is fuel for the global right’s attacks on court authority – analysis

Ashifa Kassam

À propos Le Pen’s conviction in French courts and linked protests I reported on earlier today, my colleague Ashifa Kassam looked at how the ruling in this case proved to be fuel for the global right’s attacks on court authority.

The three-word message, launched minutes after the verdict came in, was succinct in its solidarity. “Je suis Marine!” Hungary’s Viktor Orbán posted on social media after Le Pen was found guilty of embezzling European parliament funds and barred immediately from running for public office.

Messages soon came tumbling in from Brazil to Belgium, hinting at how rightwing nationalist and populist leaders had seized on the ruling to push their own narrative.

Most of them paid little heed to the judges’ finding of the key role Le Pen and more than two dozen others had played in a scam that prosecutors alleged had diverted more than €4m (£3.4m) of European parliament funds to benefit the party.

As France reeled from the political upheaval, opponents of liberal democracy jumped at the chance to peddle their claims that some justice systems are being used as a blunt tool to silence the will of the people.

Legal experts pushed back against the claims. “The decision is extremely well reasoned, the court handed down a judgment that seems to me implacable on its merits and without any real possible dispute,” said Mathieu Carpentier, a law professor at Toulouse Capitole University, citing the more than 150-page ruling delivered by the three judges.

“If Madame Le Pen had not broken the law, she would not have been convicted.”

It was a point that leaders in countries such as the US, Russia and Hungary – all of whom have faced accusations of undermining their country’s judiciary – were seemingly content to overlook.

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