France’s far-right leader Le Pen guilty of embezzlement in ruling that could end her career
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
If she's banned from running it will be the first instance of a western liberal country reacting appropriately to the resurgence of fascism. Good on France.
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"could" end it.
Are we cooked as a species? Embezzlement is a pretty big crime. She should be going to jail and it should most definitely end her political aspirations
Nah, being convicted is for minorities and the poor.
That said, I'm not sure if she's rich so maybe?
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Mate, I'm Portuguese, living in Portugal right now and let me tell you that whilst I agree with you that Portugal is a pretty corrupt place, it's far better now that it used to be back before 2009 when the first government minister ever was convicted and imprisioned for corruption.
(20 years ago nobody would have even found out that our last Prime Minister's family paid over €700k for real estate using money he had not declared to the transparency comission as having earned - not least because there was no such things as transparency legislation - much less the government falling because of it)
Outside the countries were Corruption is such a widespread and everyday thing that it can't be denied (so, the kind of place were it's normal to pay the police not to give you a fine for a traffic infraction or are expected to pay somebody at the city hall if you want to ever be issued a permit for something), the most corrupt places are places like the US and UK (the latter of which were I lived for over a decade) where the system is designed so that they won't even investigate, much less prosecute and convict anybody who is "important" for Corruption and if any such people are publicly accused of Corruption the Justice System comes down hard on the accusers for Libel or even Harassment.
There is this interesting paradox in the perception of corruption (and hence in things like the Corruption Perception Index) that when the Justice System starts going after high level politicians for corruption, people think Corruption is going up (because it gets so much coverage in the news), when in fact Corruption is going down because some crooks are getting arrested and the rest get scared (not least because when high level types get jailed, the highest level politicians who can get millions with corrupt practices that affect an entire country, stop thinking that they have de facto immunity)
Meanwhile, in the countries with purposefully designed to be innefective "anti"-corruption systems (the UK being a perfect example, with the entire responsability for fighting corruption AND fraud, from investigation to prosecution in the entire country, being the responsability of a single entity in the Justice System - the Serious Fraud Office - who have less budget than a small city hall) alongside nasty "honor/image defending" legislation to fend off any accusations of corruption - so those convicted for Corruption can be publicly accused of being corrupt and the system is setup so that nobody but the small fry ever gets convicted for Corruption - are the one's with the most "strange" pieces of legislation and ministerial orders that clearly help certain sectors and even specific companies and really high rates of politicians ending up multi-millionaires via things like work-one-day-a-month very highly paid non-executive board memberships in private companies and/or getting hundreds or thousands per-speech in the speech circuit, and yet people generally think the country is very clean because you literally never see any high level politician end up in the news for Corruption.
In america we learned that laws don't apply if everyone in power agrees to not apply them. The french are lucky enough to know how to force their government to comply, let's just hope they ensure the laws are carried out and le pen is removed from politics permanently. They have a front row seat to see what happens when you let the law apply itself. The french government would be wise to heed the warning.
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Could someone tell me how she was able to walk out of the court having been sentenced to prison?
Pretty common deal if the conviction wasn't for violence. Meth head and his wife down the road were sentenced and had a month or two to gut their rental trailer and sell the parts off. LOL, they fucking sold the floorboards. Got some good gardening stuff off him though!
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
It could but it also might end up as a Trump situation
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"could" end it.
Are we cooked as a species? Embezzlement is a pretty big crime. She should be going to jail and it should most definitely end her political aspirations
Classic right wing thinking means that the to them morally righteous can do no wrong, so convictions of embezzlement don't matter. Laws are there only to punish the undeserving, meaning everyone not in the in-group.
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In america we learned that laws don't apply if everyone in power agrees to not apply them. The french are lucky enough to know how to force their government to comply, let's just hope they ensure the laws are carried out and le pen is removed from politics permanently. They have a front row seat to see what happens when you let the law apply itself. The french government would be wise to heed the warning.
That's the thing: laws that only in practice apply to the riff-raff can stop things like the copper demanding a bribe for not to fining somebody for speeding or the hygene inspector wanting something-something not to close down a restaurant - i.e. the kind of everyday widespread corruption that everybody sooner or later comes in contact with in some countries in Africa and South America - but does nothing to stop the really big, broadest impact corruption that affects the whole country sometimes holding it back or even dragging it down for generations, like putting certain clauses in Environmental legislation to allow highly destructive activities by certain companies, making sure certain markets are monopolies or tight cartels, selling state assets (such as during privatisations) at "friendly prices" to the "right people", or making sure multimillionaire or even billionaire military procurement contracts go to certain companies.
This shit is often far too subtle for most people to spot it or fully understand its impact but can have big effects in the lives of just about everybody in a country and then people for example just go around feeling that their money doesn't seem to go as far as before not putting two and two together to figure out they're dieing the death of a thousand cuts as monopolies and cartels which should never have existed without corrupt legislation bleed them out, are dying younger because of avoidable air polution or exploitative private healthcare systems all possible thanks to legislation designed together by crooked politicians and lobbyists, feel their quality of life is much less than before as most public spaces have been made sold to private interest, and so on.
What's happening in France (and has been happening for a while - both Sarkozy and the guy before him ended up convicted for their crimes) is actually a very good thing and needs to carry on happening, with as you say equal treatment for all and no velvet glove treatment for "VIP" types.
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
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If she's banned from running it will be the first instance of a western liberal country reacting appropriately to the resurgence of fascism. Good on France.
The appropriate reaction would be to ban them for being fucking fascists, not for some incidental crime they happened to commit.
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You're right... I fixed it.
Meloni, one L.
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"could" end it.
Are we cooked as a species? Embezzlement is a pretty big crime. She should be going to jail and it should most definitely end her political aspirations
Same way Trump's "political aspirations" need to be ended
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
The fascist who could have ended the French republic and turned it into a fascist state being done in by an embezzlement charge sounds like an insult.
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If she's banned from running it will be the first instance of a western liberal country reacting appropriately to the resurgence of fascism. Good on France.
Well, she still committed financial fraud. It's more the judiciary doing its job. Sarkozy was also convicted after his presidency.
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Well, she still committed financial fraud. It's more the judiciary doing its job. Sarkozy was also convicted after his presidency.
Yeah, if only other Western countries barred politicians from running or holding office if they’ve been convicted of a crime…
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
So many good news rolling in today
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
Wait, being convicted ends political careers? Hitler and Trump wore their convictions with honor and used them to gin up support to great effect. Who's to say Le Pen doesn't somehow do the same?
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Yeah, if only other Western countries barred politicians from running or holding office if they’ve been convicted of a crime…
Instead, the US bars people from voting!
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Well, she still committed financial fraud. It's more the judiciary doing its job. Sarkozy was also convicted after his presidency.
I'm worried/curious if macron would try to pardon her or find another way to allow her to stay in after he ran to them for help after the last election
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Summary
A French court found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling over €3 million in EU funds, potentially ending her 2027 presidential bid.
The judge ruled Le Pen and 24 others misused European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016 to pay National Rally party staff, calling it a deliberate scheme, not an error.
Prosecutors had sought five years’ prison and a public office ban. Even with an appeal, a provisional execution could bar her candidacy.
I feel shocked.
/s
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Wait, being convicted ends political careers? Hitler and Trump wore their convictions with honor and used them to gin up support to great effect. Who's to say Le Pen doesn't somehow do the same?
5 years ineligibility means she can't run for president in 2027 or for another MP seat. It means others will take over and gain visibility over her.
