DISINFO: Le Pen trial is an anti-democratic move by the EU
SUMMARY
Marine Le Pen's trial is a farce on many levels, but above all because of the hypocrisy of the EU. The European Parliament is a concentration of corrupt MEPs who operate outside the rules and in many cases abuse the system of expenses. However, OLAF, the anti-fraud authority that rules in Brussels, has a history of investigating only far-right MEPs for irregularities in expenses. The trial that convicted far-right leader Le Pen, excluding her from the possibility of running in the next elections of the Republic in 2027, is the biggest existential mistake of the EU in its entire history. It is as anti-democratic as the recent one to annul the presidential elections in Romania, when it emerged that an anti-establishment candidate would have won in the second round.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative intending to discredit the French justice system and the EU.
Marine Le Pen was not convicted for political reasons but because France’s judicial system considered proven, based on ample evidence, that she had embezzled millions of euros from European Parliament funds to pay assistants for members of her party for work unrelated to the EU. Le Pen’s banning from public office is the result of the so-called Sapin 2 anti-corruption law, passed in 2016, which establishes that politicians convicted of corruption charges cannot run for office for a certain period of time. Other French politicians from different political parties, such as Alain Juppé in 2004 and François Fillon in 2017, were convicted of similar charges before, proving that this is not a political persecution against Le Pen’s party but a criminal issue.
Mentions to alleged similarities in Romania, Moldova or Georgia are also baseless allegations that have been debunked multiple times. See here, here, here, here, here and here.
Read similar cases claiming that Le Pen’s sentence shows that the EU has become a dictatorship, that the EU interfered in the Romanian elections, that Western totalitarianism has reached a new level with cancellation of Romanian elections, that Brussels wants to prevent Georgescu’s candidacy in Romanian election.