DPA
March 31, 2025
Veteran French leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon has cricitized a Paris court’s decision to bar far-right politician Marine Le Pen from running for office after finding her guilty of embezzlement on Monday.
“The decision to remove a politician from office should be up to the people,” Mélenchon said after the court also sentenced Le Pen to four years in prison, two of them suspended and the other two with an electronic tag rather than in custody.
Mélenchon, who founded the far-left France Unbowed party, said he shared his party’s conviction that Le Pen’s far-right National Rally should not be fought in court but at the ballot box.
The parliamentary group leader of the conservative Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez, also criticized the judge’s decision to bar Le Pen from running for office, a move that likely ends her plans to compete in the 2027 presidential election.
“The decision to convict Marine Le Pen is serious and extraordinary,” said Wauquiez.
He said it was not healthy for a democracy to ban an elected politician from standing in an election. “Political debates must be decided at the ballot box by the French people.”
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