Perhaps not everything is lost for the historical leader of the Rassemblement National condemned on March 31 for embezzlement of public funds intended for the MEPs collaborators but actually employed in France. A penalty, at first instance, at 4 years in prison (including two suspended and two at home with the electronic bracelet), a penalty of 100 thousand euros, but above all the inelegibility for five years. A tombstone for his race to the Elysée in 2027. Le Pen, appeals separately, aims to stay in politics. Here’s how.
Because it has been declared ineligible
The judge of Paris who sentenced Le Pen applied the Sapin II law, approved in France on 9 December 2016. Before the EMMANUEL MACRON on stage. The rule that aims, among other things, to transparency and fighting corruption provides for the ineligibility for those who are condemned for crimes “against integrity”. Usually the device is activated only at the end of the process, but there are already important precedents of the application of Sapin II already after the first degree of judgment. Among all there is the example of the former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Le Pen has already announced that it will appeal, but it is not said that the second degree sentence arrives in time for the 2027 elections.
Bardella President and the Pen Premier?
With the Pen outside the games, the current president of the party Jordan Bardella should inherit the candidacy for the French presidential elections. A hypothesis that no one would have imagined. Not even within the Rassemblement National. Not only for the trust in the sentence, but also for the young age of Bardella. The enfant prodigy of French politics is in fact only 29 years old. And in 2027 it will have 31 of them. Too few for some analysts. An opinion that would seem to be spread also among the rows of the right party.
But making the accounts with reality are already those who think of a possible scenario. If Bardella wins the race for the presidential elections, it could appoint the Pen as premier. With a blow not only would the return to politics of the historical leader would allow themselves, but a support for the youngest politician would also be guaranteed. And all this could also be possible, despite the Sapin II law. Which, according to the text, speaks of ineligibility and not of the eventuality of a appointment. On the other hand, the same Pen said that one does not want to surrender to what was established by the sentence: “But I don’t think about it, I will not submit so easily to a denial of democracy,” he said in the last few hours.
