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.
Christine Lagarde was found guilty of negligence, not embezzling. Patrick Balkany or François Fillon are better comparisons, and they both also got condemned to a period of ineligibility (10 years, twice of Lepen’s mere 5 years). They’re also both of the more “traditional” right wing party, not usually considered extremists.
What Lagarde was doing is pretty clearly embezzlement, and I would be willing to bet that majority of the EU politicians use their funds for their campaign staff. If you think this is an isolated incident, then you must’ve been born yesterday. That’s the beauty of a corrupt regime, there’s dirt to be found on any politician. All you have to do is decide where the spotlight shines and eliminate the competition. This is no different from what’s happening in Turkey now.