Exclusive-Brazil's Bolsonaro calls ruling against Le Pen 'judicial activism'

By Rodrigo Viga Gaier

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told Reuters on Monday that a court ruling that banned French far-right leader Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years was "left-wing judicial activism."

Le Pen on Monday was convicted of embezzlement in a watershed ruling that knocked her out of the 2027 presidential race unless she can win an appeal.

"This ruling is clearly left-wing judicial activism. Wherever the right-wing is present, the left and the system will work to get their opponents out of the game," Bolsonaro said in an interview.

"Here and in France, this is pure lawfare," he added. "It looks like this movement is spreading around the world. The left has found an easy way to perpetuate itself in power by using judicial activism."

France's justice ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment

Allies in France and far-right leaders from European countries, including Italy, Spain and the Netherlands joined in condemning the ruling as judicial overreach.

But others applauded the ruling against Le Pen, saying the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law must be respected after the judge convicted her of misappropriating European Union funds to benefit her party.

The judge said investigations "showed that these were not administrative errors ... but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party's costs."

Brazil's Supreme Court last week ruled that Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government after he lost the 2022 election. If found guilty in the court proceedings, he could face a lengthy prison sentence.

He has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the case as politically motivated.

In 2023, Bolsonaro was barred from public office until 2030 for abuse of power ahead of the 2022 elections, when he summoned ambassadors to attack the legitimacy of Brazil's voting system.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Gabriel Stargardter in ParisWriting by Gabriel AraujoEditing by Brad Haynes, Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis)