The European Court of Human Rights shut down a request from French populist leader Marine Le Pen to overide the “political death sentence” ban against her running for office for the next five years.
The Strasbourg-based court, which can be appealed to over judicial rulings within signatory states, rejected the request from former French presidential candidate and current National Assembly deputy Marine Le Pen to suspend the prohibition of her standing for office, which Paris magistrates mandated must remain in place even during the appeal process.
The “political death sentence” was issued in March over alleged misuse of EU funds for her party on national level politics in France, which political insiders say is a fairly common occurrence and one which typically does not result in such a drastic penalty, if at all.
In its ruling on Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that her ineligibility from elections did not present an “imminent risk of irreparable infringement of a right protected by the European Convention on Humans Rights,” Le Figaro reports.
The judges claimed that Le Pen’s appeal did not meet the required standard of an urgent risk to having her rights infringed upon as there is currently no election being held from which she is barred from standing.
However, the National Rally leader noted that French President Emmanuel Macron currently has the power to dissolve parliament whenever he chooses, at which point a national election would be held and Le Pen would be prohibited from standing for re-election given the ineligibility ruling.
While she still plans to challenge the merits of the ruling at the ECHR and also has filed for appeal at the national level, the ruling comes amid a torrent of legal action against Le Pen and the National Rally.
On Tuesday, European prosecutors announced they have openened a new investigation into the French party for having “unduly spent” 4.3 million euros between 2019 and 2024 on administrative services from companies allegedly tied to family members of Le Pen.
Following this, the National Rally’s headquarters in Paris were raided on Wednesday, with police seizing documents and computers from the political party over alleged financial misconduct surrounding loans provided to the RN from its supporters.
Speaking from Strasbourg following the raid, Le Pen deputy and National Rally president Jordan Bardella claimed that lawfare was being used to prevent the populist party from taking power in the next election.
Bardella, who has been pitched as a potential backup candidate should the ban on Le Pen standing in the next presidential election be upheld, warned that the raids on the party’s HQ could serve as a “pretext” for authorities raiding his own office, suggesting that the establishment may seek to ban him from running for president as well.
“This operation, spectacular and unprecedented, is clearly part of a new harassment campaign. It is a serious attack on pluralism and the democratic transfer of power,” Bardella said.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: Follow @KurtZindulka or e-mail to: [email protected]
Read the full article here