France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party is calling for nationwide demonstrations against a court decision to ban Marine Le Pen from public office for five years, seemingly wrecking her hopes of becoming president in 2027.
Jordan Bardella, the RN president, said French people “must be outraged” after what he called a “disproportionate, political and partisan” judgment that would rob them of a voice in the election.
Speaking after Le Pen’s conviction for embezzling European parliament funds, Bardella called for “peaceful, democratic protests” across France and said the party would be launching a leafleting campaign this weekend as part of a “people’s mobilisation”.
Le Pen has said she will appeal against the ruling, which if successful would lead to a new trial that she hopes would overturn the conviction and public office ban in time to campaign for the presidency.
At a press conference on Tuesday at the Assemblée nationale, Le Pen said the RN would “not allow itself to be taken for a ride”. The party would “defend the French people who have the right to vote for whosoever they wish and defend the country, which is teetering on the brink of collapse”, she said.
Bardella, who is seen as the RN’s Plan B if Le Pen fails, said he refused to consider stepping into her shoes as a presidential candidate and pledged his loyalty to her.
“Marine Le Pen has given me everything in politics,” he said. “It is she who has given me the opportunity to be before you today. The least I can do is to fight with her to the end. We work together, hand in hand and in total confidence. I have total loyalty. Those who think they have killed off the RN and put us out of the game will not succeed.”
Hours after the verdict that threw French politics into turmoil on Monday the RN came out fighting with a communication campaign on French television.
Bardella, 29, was speaking a day after a Paris court found Le Pen and 24 others from RN, including party officials, employees, MEPs and assistants, guilty of embezzling millions in European parliament funds as part of a fake jobs scam.
The trial last November heard how the party took money for EU parliamentary assistants but spent it on paying staff in France. None of the accused benefited personally from the embezzlement.
Le Pen, 56, was also given a four-year prison term, two years suspended and two to be served wearing an electronic bracelet. The sentence will be postponed until the appeal process is exhausted, but the five-year ban on standing for public office takes immediate effect.
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After the verdict, Le Pen went on television to denounce what she said was the court’s “political decision” and vowed to “pursue all legal avenues” to be able to stand in 2027.
On Tuesday morning, Bardella gave a long live interview with the French opinion channel CNews dismissing the embezzlement charges as “an administrative disagreement with the EU”. He described Le Pen’s sentence as “brutal” and a travesty against her and the RN, the single largest party in the French Assemblée nationale.
“If you are in politics, you are not above the law, but neither are you below it,” he said. “As long as she can bring the RN to power everything will be done to stop us getting there,” Bardella said. “The place to fight adversaries is on political not legal ground. I say to those rejoicing in this decision: today it’s us, tomorrow it will be you.”
Bardella added that he hoped the appeal court hearing could be held in time to correct the “error” of the lower court so that Le Pen could stand in 2027 and said RN voters were being ignored as “second-class” citizens.
He called on supporters to avoid threatening or insulting the judges. “This is unacceptable and we condemn it,” he said. The RN has launched a petition on its website calling supporters to: “Save democracy: support Marine”.
“We are not fashos, racists or far right. We are reasonable people who are patriotic, who love our country and we are fighting for the French people. We are fighting to get into power, not to remain in opposition.”