Le Pen's MAGA-Style Martyrdom Is New Risk in France
What makes this scandal different is not, as Le Pen's defenders — including Elon Musk — claim, that French democracy is now decided by a cabal of unelected judges. If anything, the sentencing went against widespread expectations among the Parisian elite of an outcome that would have kept the political peace. If the presiding judge threw the book at Le Pen, it's because of the magnitude of a 'system' that lasted more than a decade and diverted millions of European Union funds for domestic activities — and because the far-right leader showed no remorse, insisting Monday evening that she was innocent and the victim of a political stitch-up. (If so, she's in good company.)
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The Hill
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