French far right rallies supporters over Le Pen conviction
The bombshell judgement stunned France's political establishment, with even some of her fiercest opponents saying the far-right leader should be allowed to stand in the 2027 vote. She has lodged an appeal.
"People of France, let us mobilise to defend freedom, save democracy and support Marine!" Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party said on X ahead of the protest in Paris.
Polls indicate Le Pen, 56, would easily top the first round of the two-round presidential vote if she ran -- the latest survey by pollster Elabe for broadcaster BFMTV, released Saturday, showed her with up to 36 percent of the vote.
READ ALSO:
OPINION - Marine Le Pen is a martyr to nothing but her own greed and arrogance
She describes herself as the "favourite" to succeed President Emmanuel Macron.
On Monday, Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement and given a partly suspended jail term and an immediate ban on holding public office.
Her supporters branded the ruling politically motivated, but Macron insisted the French judiciary is "independent".
US President Donald Trump called the sentence a "witch hunt" by "European leftists using lawfare to silence free speech, and censor their political opponent".
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou rejected that remark as "interference" in French affairs, in a newspaper interview released Saturday.
He added that it was "neither healthy nor desirable" to stage a demonstration against the court ruling, insisting French institutions allowed for "the separation of powers and the defence of justice".
Advertisement
'Victimisation'
Le Pen's conviction set France's political scene alight, with some leftwing forces planning to stage a counter-rally on Sunday.
Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old head of the National Rally, said the ruling would only boost support for the party.
He has called the rally in Place Vauban in Paris's affluent 7th district "a mobilisation not against, but in support of French democracy".
"It's not a power play," he said.
On Saturday, National Rally supporters gathered in the southern port city of Marseille, but the turnout was relatively sparse, with around 500 people turning up.
Le Pen has worked to turn the party into an electable mainstream force and rid it of the legacy of her father, its co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died in January and was frequently accused of racism.
But now Le Pen risks seeing years of progress undone, political observers say.
After the ruling, she accused authorities of using a "nuclear bomb" against her.
She compared herself to Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison in 2024 after being jailed under President Vladimir Putin. "Indecent to the end," said left-leaning French daily Liberation in its verdict on that claim.
Advertisement
"She is forced to adopt an anti-establishment point of view and position," said Jean-Yves Dormagen, president of Cluster17, an opinion analysis institute.
"Victimisation works with her voters," he added.
The National Rally is the largest single party in the French parliament and can complicate life for Bayrou, who does not have a majority in the lower house.
His predecessor Michel Barnier was ejected from office last December in a move backed by Le Pen.
The Paris Court of Appeal said it would examine Le Pen's case within a timeframe that could potentially allow her to contest the polls if her conviction is overturned or her sentence changed.
READ MORE:
Appeals and rallies: What next for Marine Le Pen and the French far right?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
Top-level UN conference on Palestinian statehood postponed
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday that a top-level UN conference on a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine has been postponed amid surging tensions between Israel and Iran. France and Saudi Arabia were due to co-chair the conference hosted by the UN General Assembly in New York on June 17-20, and Macron had been among leaders scheduled to attend. Macron told reporters that the two-state conference was postponed for logistical and security reasons, and because some Palestinian representatives couldn't come to the event. He insisted that it would be held 'as soon as possible' and that he was in discussion with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about a new date. He insisted that 'this delay does not call into question our determination to move forward with the implementation of the two-state solution, whatever the circumstances." One of the aims at the UN conference was to increase the number of countries recognising Palestinian territories as an independent state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the creation of a Palestinian state, and Israel refused to participate in the conference. On Wednesday, Reuters reported that US President Trump's administration had sent a cable discouraging governments around the world from attending the conference. It reportedly warned countries that any "anti-Israel actions" taken after the conference could be followed by diplomatic consequences from Washington. Macron stressed that 'the aim is a demilitarised Palestinian state recognising the existence and the security of Israel,' Macron said. Any such state would exclude any Hamas leaders, he said. After Israel's strikes on Iran on Friday, Macron said that France's military forces around the Middle East are ready to help protect partners in the region, including Israel, but wouldn't take part in any attacks on Iran. He said "the risk of this march towards nuclear weapons by Iran threatens the region, Europe and, more generally, collective political stability." French schools, places of worship, public buildings, public festivals and gatherings and places of interest for the French Israeli, American and Jewish communities are all the focus of a call for greater security given out by France's interior minister Bruno Retailleau today. In a letter seen by Euronews addressed to the minister of defence, the heads of the army, police and other security chiefs, Retailleau said that deteriorating situation in the Middle East following Israel's strikes on Iran necessitated implementation of immediate action to increase security within France. In addition to calling on a beefed up police presence and extra vigilance, the note also called for efforts to track individuals, "particularly Iranians or those with links to Iran", already of interest to French authorities in the context of anti-radicalisation. After convening with his security cabinet, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany will also increase protection of Israeli assets and Jewish sites. While Merz emphasised Israel's 'right to protect its existence and the security of its citizens," he also called on both sides to refrain from further escalation.
LeMonde
5 hours ago
- LeMonde
In Ukraine, the Dnipropetrovsk region faces threats of a Russian breakthrough toward Pokrovsk
For nearly three months, Anna's friends have been leaving the small town of Mejove, which had about 7,000 residents before the war. Now, only Anna – a 17-year-old who preferred not to give her last name – remains as of Thursday, June 12, serving drinks to her new clientele: soldiers either returning from the front for a brief respite or about to be deployed. The town's atmosphere mirrored that of the café − a mix of civilians and soldiers along streets crisscrossed by plain khaki vehicles. Russian armed forces were drawing closer. "Of course it's scary," Anna said, her face nonetheless calm, as she insisted on completing her service at this small café in the Dnipropetrovsk region, located roughly 15 kilometers west of the border with Donetsk − the epicenter of fighting in the Donbas. In recent days, after months of slowly gaining territory in the neighboring region at the cost of heavy losses in personnel and equipment, Moscow authorities declared having reached and crossed the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region – a claim Kyiv immediately contested. The announcements were accompanied by videos of Russian soldiers saying they had crossed the border area. As early as June 8, the Russian Ministry of Defense asserted that some of its units had reached the border and would continue their offensive further West. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the next day that the offensive aimed to create a "buffer zone" with the Donetsk region, which is partially occupied but over which the Kremlin claims full sovereignty.
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
US adversaries fuel disinformation about LA protests
The findings from researchers at the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard illustrate how foreign adversaries of the United States are exploiting deep divisions in American society as a tactic of information warfare. NewsGuard said Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state-affiliated sources have published around 10,000 posts and articles about the demonstrations that recently erupted in Los Angeles, advancing false claims framing the city as "ground zero in an American apocalypse." Seizing on the political rift between President Donald Trump and Governor Gavin Newsom, pro-China accounts on X and Chinese platforms such as Douyin and Weibo have peddled unfounded claims that California was ready to secede from the United States and declare independence. Meanwhile, Tehran-based newspapers have peddled the false claim that popular Iranian singer-songwriter Andranik Madadian had been detained by the National Guard in Los Angeles, in an apparent effort to portray the United States as an authoritarian state. NewsGuard quoted Madadian, better known by his stage name Andy, as denying the claim, stating: "I am fine. Please don't believe these rumors." Russian media and pro-Russian influencers, meanwhile, has embraced right-wing conspiracy theories, including the unfounded claim that the Mexican government was stoking the demonstrations against Trump's immigration policies. "The demonstrations are unfolding at the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities such as eroded trust in institutions, AI chatbots amplifying false claims about the unrest, political polarization, and a rollback of safety and moderation efforts by major platforms," McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with NewsGuard, told AFP. "As a result, foreign actors have a wide-open playing field to flood the zone with falsehoods at a faster rate and fewer barriers compared to previous moments of unrest," she added. The apparent alignment across the three countries was noteworthy, Sadeghi said. "While Russia, China, and Iran regularly push their own unique forms of disinformation, it's less common to see them move in such a coordinated fashion like this," she said. "This time, state media outlets have escalated their messaging to advance their geopolitical interests and deflect attention from their own domestic crises." The disinformation comes on top of false narratives promoted by US-based influencers. In recent days, conservative social media users have circulated two photographs of brick piles they claimed were strategically placed for the California protesters to hurl at police and inflame violence. The photos were cited as proof that the protests were fueled by nonprofit organizations supported by George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has long been a bogeyman for the far right. But AFP's fact-checkers found that one photo was lifted from an online marketplace, where a Malaysian hardware dealer uploaded it years ago, while the other was snapped near a construction site in New Jersey. "Every time there's a popular protest, the old clickbaity 'pallets of bricks' hoax shows up right on cue," the Social Media Lab, a research center at the Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote on the platform Bluesky. © 2025 AFP
