this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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Summary

A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.

The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.

Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 252 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Let's hope the French justice system is more competent than the US one.

[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] Tja@programming.dev 11 points 3 days ago (4 children)
[–] cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 3 days ago (7 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Sarkozy_corruption_trial

And there is another trial going on. So the French justice system is sound.

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[–] Wytch@lemmy.zip 174 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Wait, y'all can just convict a right-wing political figure and like, get rid of them? Forever?

We gotta check our math, I think we did something wrong over here.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 53 points 3 days ago

Yeah. It was reconstruction where we never held the south to account for their treasonous actions.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Lol of course not. She'll be right back in five years. And people will vote for her again.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 9 points 3 days ago

I heard that Trump jumped up and down and threw his juice box when JD explained he couldn't pardon her.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Wait, y’all can just convict a right-wing political figure and like, get rid of them? Forever?

Maybe. We'll see if this is a real prosecution or just French Mueller Time.

[–] silverlose@lemm.ee 8 points 3 days ago

The French know what’s up. As per usual.

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[–] Zier@fedia.io 82 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What? Another 'conservative' who is a criminal? Shocked! Shocked I say!

[–] FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone 60 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

She's not your average conservative. She's an actual fascist -- linked with Orbán, Trump, Meloni, received millions from Putin, and her party was formed by and still includes numerous nazis, regardless of her rebranding efforts. This goes both for the founding members and the current recruits.

[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Maybe not an average conservative in France, but pretty spot-on for a conservative in the U.S.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 10 points 3 days ago

Because what the US call conservative is what the EU calls far-right. EU conservatives, or traditional right, are similar to your average Democrat.

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[–] Horsey@lemmy.world 77 points 3 days ago (2 children)
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[–] arafatknee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 75 points 3 days ago

What? I thought the fascists were decent, law abiding people?

[–] kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 66 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

"could" end it.

Are we cooked as a species? Embezzlement is a pretty big crime. She should be going to jail and it should most definitely end her political aspirations

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Classic right wing thinking means that for them, the morally righteous can do no wrong, so convictions of embezzlement don't matter. Laws are there only to punish the undeserving, meaning everyone not in the in-group.

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[–] Amonverite@lemmy.ca 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Same way Trump's "political aspirations" need to be ended

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[–] Trihilis@ani.social 8 points 3 days ago

Nah, being convicted is for minorities and the poor.

That said, I'm not sure if she's rich so maybe?

[–] WildPalmTree@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

4 years. Let's see how it plays out.

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[–] Bristingr@lemm.ee 46 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Wish our justice system actually did it's job here...

[–] Wiz@midwest.social 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

"Embezzlement," how quaint!

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[–] randomprecision@lemmy.world 42 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

Fantastic news even!

[–] LuckingFurker@lemmy.blahaj.zone 41 points 3 days ago (1 children)
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[–] PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago (3 children)

If she's banned from running it will be the first instance of a western liberal country reacting appropriately to the resurgence of fascism. Good on France.

The appropriate reaction would be to ban them for being fucking fascists, not for some incidental crime they happened to commit.

[–] Pringles@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Well, she still committed financial fraud. It's more the judiciary doing its job. Sarkozy was also convicted after his presidency.

[–] jumjummy@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, if only other Western countries barred politicians from running or holding office if they’ve been convicted of a crime…

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 days ago

Instead, the US bars people from voting!

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[–] hikuro93@lemmy.ca 35 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The worst thing in this statement is "could" - "could end her career".

A system that doesn't automatically provide real consequences and makes an example of the criminal is a corrupt system in itself. There shouldn't even be a 'could' in a so-called 'fair and free system'.

And this isn't just France, by far. Cheers from the Banana Republic known as Portugal, quite the paradise for corrupt politicians.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Mate, I'm Portuguese, living in Portugal right now and let me tell you that whilst I agree with you that Portugal is a pretty corrupt place, it's far better now that it used to be back before 2009 when the first government minister ever was convicted and imprisioned for corruption.

(20 years ago nobody would have even found out that our last Prime Minister's family paid over €700k for real estate using money he had not declared to the transparency comission as having earned - not least because there was no such things as transparency legislation - much less the government falling because of it)

Outside the countries were Corruption is such a widespread and everyday thing that it can't be denied (so, the kind of place were it's normal to pay the police not to give you a fine for a traffic infraction or are expected to pay somebody at the city hall if you want to ever be issued a permit for something), the most corrupt places are places like the US and UK (the latter of which were I lived for over a decade) where the system is designed so that they won't even investigate, much less prosecute and convict anybody who is "important" for Corruption and if any such people are publicly accused of Corruption the Justice System comes down hard on the accusers for Libel or even Harassment.

There is this interesting paradox in the perception of corruption (and hence in things like the Corruption Perception Index) that when the Justice System starts going after high level politicians for corruption, people think Corruption is going up (because it gets so much coverage in the news), when in fact Corruption is going down because some crooks are getting arrested and the rest get scared (not least because when high level types get jailed, the highest level politicians who can get millions with corrupt practices that affect an entire country, stop thinking that they have de facto immunity)

Meanwhile, in the countries with purposefully designed to be innefective "anti"-corruption systems (the UK being a perfect example, with the entire responsability for fighting corruption AND fraud, from investigation to prosecution in the entire country, being the responsability of a single entity in the Justice System - the Serious Fraud Office - who have less budget than a small city hall) alongside nasty "honor/image defending" legislation to fend off any accusations of corruption - so only those convicted for Corruption can be publicly accused of being corrupt and the system is setup so that nobody but the small fry ever gets convicted for Corruption - are the one's with the most "strange" pieces of legislation and ministerial orders that clearly help certain sectors and even specific companies and really high rates of politicians ending up multi-millionaires via things like work-one-day-a-month very highly paid non-executive board memberships in private companies and/or getting hundreds or thousands per-speech in the speech circuit, and yet people generally think the country is very clean because you literally never see any high level politician end up in the news for Corruption.

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[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 28 points 3 days ago

CELEBRATION TIME COME ON

[–] Visstix@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago

Hehe get fucked

[–] cute_noker@feddit.dk 25 points 3 days ago

So many good news rolling in today

[–] Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca 20 points 2 days ago

Good, she’s an awful person.

[–] Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 18 points 3 days ago

The fascist who could have ended the French republic and turned it into a fascist state being done in by an embezzlement charge sounds like an insult.

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago
[–] khannie@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Could someone tell me how she was able to walk out of the court having been sentenced to prison?

[–] cynar@lemmy.world 24 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The prison sentence kicks in after appeals have been made. 2 years, plus 2 suspended.

It's also not unknown/uncommon for people to be let free for a few days. It lets them put their affairs in order, before serving their time. It tends to be applied to those with a very low flight risk however, with significant affairs, so mainly the rich.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

I feel shocked.

/s

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 days ago

A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.

"pfffft...amateur." (Donald Trump, probably)

[–] militaryintelligence@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I wonder if she'll write a book about her struggle

[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 9 points 2 days ago

Ma Lutte?

Sounds like a medieval guitar.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Womp womp!

And kremlin deplores frances lack of democracy, so I sure think we're on the right track!

Just waiting for the ineligibility time...

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