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.

          • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            2 days ago

            “sound” is a big word, for a justice system that perpetuates state violence and mistreats immigrants and disabled people.

            But yes, the french system is more successful at holding politicians accountable than the US.

              • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                That’s not moving goalposts. Your original comment was stating the system was sound because the politician was convicted. The person you are replying to was refuting that based on other failures of the french court system.

                If you had instead posited “the french justice system is sound in this regard” referencing political conviction solely, then you might have ground for them ignoring the argument.

                • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  2 days ago

                  Good point. Original Commenter (OC) is claiming a specificity after the fact when initially they were claiming a generality.

                  As a reader though, OC’s meaning came across in my first reading. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

            • tatann@lemm.ee
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              2 days ago

              “sound” is a big word, for a justice system that perpetuates state violence and mistreats immigrants.

              The justice system doesn’t, the police does

              • Takapapatapaka@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                I kinda disagree here. Ofc the police is on the front line, but the judges protect policemen and policewomen from being convicted or too harshly punished.

                More generally, it is judges who decide to send people to prison, to inflict economic and social punishments on people deviating from the state, to send refugees back to suffering or death they tried to escape from. I saw trials in France where the judges considered the fact that a militant had anarchist books in his library as aggravating circumstance. I studied law for 3 years and made internship in tribunals, and it is not a misconception to say that the judiciary system is protecting and perpetrating state violence, though it’s less bloody than what the cops can do.

  • Wytch@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    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.

  • kn0wmad1c@programming.dev
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    2 days ago

    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
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      2 days ago

      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.

      • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The liberals should be upholding the law and throw these people in jail. If fraud pays, of course the right wingers will abuse it.

    • lumony@lemmings.world
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      23 hours ago

      Are we cooked as a species?

      Yes, and it’s by design.

      Parents who have sold themselves out also condition their children to do the same thing.

      The people who are taken advantage of the most are the ones who never realize it.

    • Trihilis@ani.social
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      2 days ago

      Nah, being convicted is for minorities and the poor.

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

  • toxla@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Well, as a politician the more your disrespect law the more you are likely to be elected (hi Sarkozy, hi Trump)

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

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

    • FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      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
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        2 days ago

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

        • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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          2 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.

        • FurryMemesAccount@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          The original conservatives were in De Gaulle’s party, which was ferociously anti-nazi.

          Although, naturally, as a conservative party they’re now talking about immigration, restricting liberties and the like…

          Still a far cry from what Le Pen is up to.

      • biofaust@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        And Meloni, please gals and guys, never forget Meloni. I know she looks like an ugly Chihuahua, but she bites much more than she barks.

  • PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • Pringles@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

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

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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    2 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.