cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4484610
A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her immediately from running for office for five years. Le Pen abruptly left the Paris courtroom before hearing how long she will be banned from running for public office.
Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.
The biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 – a scenario she had described as a “political death.”
The Constitutional Council ruled Friday, in a separate case, that imposing the punishment immediately was constitutional.
Eventually the workers will rise up, but my impression is that genuine socialists are still a minority in Europe. Neoliberal centre is still strong, and the right has been doing a better job than the left attracting people who fall out of it. The right also has the benefit of being backed by the rich since they don’t see it as a threat. I suspect it’s quite likely that we could see a right wave sweep through Europe before people start seriously looking left.