They support Le Pen: “Je suis Marine!” 

Marine Le Pen
Le Pen is defended: “Je suis Marine!”

Emil Forsberg

Published 23.08

Marine Le Pen is convicted of fraud and barred from the 2027 presidential election.

Now Russia, Elon Musk and Viktor Orbán are coming to her defense.

“Je suis Marine!”, Orbán writes on X.

          

           Marine Le Pen after the verdict: “Political”
           0:51

The fraud verdict against Marine Le Pen hit like a political bomb in France.

The French far-right politician will now serve four years in prison – and is also banned from running in the 2027 presidential election, where she has been tipped as the favorite in opinion polls.

– They are deliberately trying to prevent me from running in 2027, she says.

Marine Le Pen went on French television to criticize the verdict. Photo: Thomas Samson/AP

Now she is being defended from several sides:

"When the radical left cannot win through a democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to imprison their opponents," says Elon Musk.

Elon Musk. Photo: Matt Rourke/AP

Orbán writes on X

The US State Department says it sees similarities between Le Pen and Donald Trump:

- The exclusion of people from the political process is particularly worrying given the aggressive and corrupt legal warfare that was directed against President Trump here in the United States, says spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also defends the French opposition leader:

"Je suis Marine!", he writes on X.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Photo: Omar Havana/AP

“Never interfered”

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini calls the verdict a “declaration of war from Brussels.”

“Those who fear the verdict from the voters often find their solace in verdicts from the judiciary.”

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also claims that “more and more European capitals are violating democratic norms.”

“We do not interfere in France’s internal affairs and have never done so. But our observation of European capitals shows that they do not hesitate to go beyond the limits of democracy in the political process.”

Convicted of embezzlement

Marine Le Pen, who leads the right-wing nationalist party National Rally, was convicted of being the mastermind behind a massive embezzlement of EU funds.

The money, which was supposed to be used for the party’s work in the European Parliament, was instead used to build up her party organization at home.

The court estimated that a total of 2.9 million euros had been embezzled between 2004 and 2016. Twelve accomplices were also found guilty by the court.