Marine LePen Emulates Trump— And In The Worst Possible Way

I like The Economist— at least when I’m flying on B.A., which is where I read it. And then yesterday I heard the beginning and the end of a long NPR interview with the editor-in-chief, Susan “Zanny” Minton Beddoes. In between I went grocery shopping; but I heard enough fit to really dislike “Zanny,” who repeated several times that “everybody agrees” that Ukraine has to give up some of its territory to Putin. I’m glad I don’t travel in her circles! At the end, after one of the damn shopping bags broken and spilled half my groceries all over the filthy gutter as I was about to put it into the backseat of my car, I think I heard her apologizing for the magazine not having endorsed Trump.

She also talked about how many European leaders are learning from Trump. She didn’t seem condemnatory at all; quite the contrary. And when I got home, a member of Congress had e-mailed me, entirely coincidentally, a Politico Europe piece by Victor Goury-Laffont with a note: “LePen emulates Trump in the worst possible way.”

On Wednesday, “prosecutors,” wrote Goury-Laffont, “asked that far-right French lawmaker Marine Le Pen be found guilty of embezzlement, sentenced to prison and barred from running for public office— including the French presidency— for the next five years. Le Pen, her National Rally party, and 24 other individuals— including current and former French lawmakers and MEPs— are accused of illicitly using European Parliament funds to pay parliamentary assistants for work on party business rather than on EU affairs from 2004 to 2016. Le Pen and her co-defendants have all denied the charges. Prosecutors asked that Le Pen receive the harshest sentence of all, noting that she was both an MEP and party leader while some of the crimes purportedly took place. They asked the judge to give her five years in prison, three of which would be suspended, and fine her €300,000. The ban on running for public office would extend past 2027, when the next presidential election is scheduled to take place.”

Crucially, prosecutors also asked that the sentence be immediately executed, even if Le Pen were to appeal. Typically an appeal means that penalties in a case are suspended unless the presiding judge determines otherwise.

“It’s clear that the only thing the public prosecutors wanted was Marine Le Pen’s exclusion from political life,” Le Pen told reporters after court had adjourned.

During the trial last week, Le Pen said that she was planning to run for the French presidency for a fourth time, and that “millions of French people would be deprived of their presidential candidate” if she is barred from doing so.

Shortly before announcing the requested sentencing, prosecutor Louise Neyton urged the court to take into account the “unprecedented” nature of the embezzlement due to the long period of time over which the system allegedly took place and the estimated damages.

The accused “made the European Parliament their cash cow and were looking to continue to do so,” Neyton said. “If the European Parliament had not blown the whistle, the facts would have continued and the embezzlement would have been even greater.”

The defense will now be given the opportunity to make its case before the judge, who will announce a verdict date before Nov. 27. The verdict itself is expected early next year.

On Tuesday, the Parliament urged that all accused be found guilty. It estimated the financial damage to taxpayers at €4.5 million, and said it would seek an additional €300,000 in compensation.

The far-right leader, drawing a page from United States President-elect Donald Trump’s playbook, portrayed the trial as politically motivated and accused the lead judge of “biased” conduct.

While Le Pen, a seasoned public speaker, has managed to keep her composure during the trial, many of her co-defendants have been unable to make a convincing case for themselves. Evidence put forward in court showed that many individuals under contract as legislative assistants had rarely, if ever, been to the Parliament, and in some cases had had limited to no contact with the MEPs they purportedly assisted.

Prosecutors asked that the National Rally be fined €2 million and all the accused receive temporary bans on running for public office ranging from one to five years.