France may be on the eve of a snap national election, but poll-leading sovereignist leader Marine Le Pen is barred from running, a Paris court has confirmed, because of a conviction her supporters say is a case of politically targeted justice.
France’s Council of State, the body of high-profile lawyers that provides legal advice to the government and the Supreme Court, has rejected an appeal by National Rally leader Marine Le Pen to overturn her ineligibility decision, reports Le Figaro. The order that was imposed on the politician in March by a judge is considered unusual and controversial because unlike normal criminal sanctions, it is imposed immediately, although appeal procedures to get the conviction itself overturned have not been exhausted.
Le Pen’s supporters have called the move to prevent her from taking office a purely political move aimed at removing her from the polls at all costs, at a time when her party is leading polls in France. Le Pen herself said it was an attempt by the judiciary to “steal” the upcoming elections.
Indeed, it is claimed that many MEPs break the particular rule that Le Pen is accused of breaking, but almost none are ever punished for it, giving the impression that the law is only enforced to silence politicians who threaten the European Union itself.
Le Pen’s appeal against the conviction for what has been characterized as campaign finance fraud will take place early next year, starting in January, meaning that if the judgment is overturned, her eligibility to run for office will return in time for the next scheduled French presidential election. However, and above all, France is going through a period of intense political instability, with governments collapsing within months, and since this month even within hours of their founding.
The root of this instability lies in a deeply divided Parliament, with no dominant party or faction, and no possibility of coalition formation, with the three main blocs coming from completely exclusive political positions. This has led to sustained and repeated calls for new national elections, and even the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron himself and the nation’s choice of a new leader.
This could be the key to returning to stability and avoiding, as has been widely discussed, the end of the French Fifth Republic to make way for a whole new constitution and a whole new electoral system. Yet new elections when the leader of the country’s leading party, the National Rally, is barred from running could very well intensify the crisis by further eroding public confidence in the quality of its democracy.
