Europe has decided to go all in on punishing political opponents. In France, opposition leader Marine Le Pen was banned for standing office for five years and sentenced to jail after being convicted of embezzling funds. This would block her from taking the presidency in 2027, which she was on track to do.
She stormed from the courtroom before the verdict was read and muttered the word “Unbelievable.” On X, she vowed to continue fighting injustice until the end.
It is would be foolish to see this as an impartial trial. She was tried for financial records between the years 2004 to 2016, so nine years later she gets a verdict! She was accused of using EU funds for parliamentary assistants but she argued that their work blurred the lines between EU duties, especially as she is a member of parliament. She took nothing for herself and the punishment is harsher than other cases of this kind.
She joins the ranks of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Imran Khan in Pakistan, Matteo Salvini in Italy, and Calin Georgescu in Romania: modern opposition leaders jailed as they were poised to take office.
They want to punish Hungary’s Victor Orbán too if they can only figure out how. The incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz has drafted laws to demand the E.U. “withhold funds and suspend voting rights from countries that violate key principles such as the rule of law.” That could mean anything but Politico says that it is a clear shot at Hungary for continually opposing the liberal agenda.
