The French government is bracing for political repercussions after the conviction of National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and her subsequent ban from running in the 2027 presidential election, BBC reported.
Le Pen was convicted this week of a fake jobs scheme at the EU Parliament. Along with two years of house arrest, she's barred from seeking public office for five years.
An appeals court said Tuesday it will review her case within a timeframe that could allow her to run in France's 2027 election to replace termed-out President Emmanuel Macron, if it overturns her conviction.
Le Pen said the "system has released a nuclear bomb" while her deputy exhorted RN supporters to "be outraged."
"I believe today that the French must be outraged, and I tell them: Be outraged!" said Jordan Bardella, potentially RN's de facto candidate for the 2027 election. "We'll take to the streets this weekend. We're organizing leaflet distributions, democratic, peaceful, calm mobilizations."
The French government fears that revenge could come in the form of attempting to topple the coalition government of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who survived a no-confidence vote in January. Such an RN push could force parliamentary elections this summer, which could strengthen RN's lead in Parliament and exert more pressure on Macron, according to the BBC.
While the aftermath of Le Pen's conviction is still to be felt, cries of "lawfare" — akin to the cries of President Donald Trump and his supporters in the U.S. — echo across France, according to the report.
"It's clear something is starting to rot in France," Mathieu Carpentier, a constitutional law expert at Toulouse Capitole University, told Reuters. "We are starting to assume that by default, as soon as judges deliver a decision we don't like, this decision is necessarily politically motivated."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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