The far -right leader Jordan Bardella called people to join the center of Paris on Sunday to protest a decision that prohibited Marine Le Pen from presenting himself to public functions for five years.
Le Pen’s candidacy to become the next president of France in 2027 had a dramatic blow on Monday, when the judges said that it had been at the heart of an operation which saw the diversion of 2.9 million euros ($ 3.4 million; 2.5 million pounds sterling) of EU funds between 2004 and 2016.
It can appeal, but the prohibition has an immediate effect and the call process can take some time, leaving it only a thin hope of presenting itself to the presidency.
Bardella, the president of the National Rallye Party (RN), said that the French should be “indignant” by pain.
“We will descend into the street this weekend,” added Bardella at a press conference on Tuesday, with a call for “democratic, peaceful and calm mobilizations”. The first event is planned for Place de Vauban near the Eiffel Tower on Sunday.
Sitting next to him, Le Pen said that a “nuclear bomb” had been used against the RN to prevent the party from getting to power.
The long -standing figurehead of the French on the far right added that the “system” had used a “powerful weapon” against the RN, “obviously because we are about to win the elections”.
“We won’t let them get away,” she added. People had to use their “indignation and injury” to motivate them to persevere: “We will stand until the end, until victory.”
Earlier Tuesday, Bardella condemned the “tyranny of judges” and said that “everything was done to prevent us from going to power”.
He also criticized the insults that the judges have received since the sentence sentence on Monday, just like Le Pen, who said that any threat to the magistrates was “unacceptable”.
They echoed Rémy Heitz, the general prosecutor of the Court of Cassation – the highest court in France – who declared Tuesday earlier than there had been “very personalized attacks” and threats against the three judges who had determined the verdicts on Monday.
Quoting a police source, the newspaper Le Figaro reported that Bénédicte de Perthuis, the judge president of the Le Pen case, had been placed under protection following the threats.
Le Pen was preparing to come to the presidency for the fourth time and had a good chance of winning. It is clearly reluctant to give the stick to Jordan Bardella, who, at 29, is considered by some to be missing the necessary experience to occupy the highest office in France.
Since she was deemed ineligible, Le Pen said that she “would not be eliminated like that”. Bardella avoided being trained in the discussion at this stage, refusing to say if he was “Plan B” of National Rally.
However, RN’s spokesman Laurent Jacobelli said that the party would fight to have Le Pen as a candidate, Bardella was “the most naturally legitimate alternative”.
Voters can agree. A survey published one day before the sentence of the Pen Pen showed that around 60% of the voters of the indexation of the AI would support Bardella on the Pen during the presidential election if it were to appear, and that it would leave with up to 36% of the total vote.
Le Pen collected the support of several right-handers in Europe and beyond, notably Viktor Orban in Hungary and US President Donald Trump, who declared that his conviction was a “big business”.
And Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that “a person who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that … deprives millions of citizens of representation”.
In addition to the ban on presenting himself to public functions, Le Pen also received a fine of € 100,000 (£ 82,635) and a sentence of four years in prison, two of whom will be suspended.
This will not apply as long as the call process is not exhausted, which could take several years.
