Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 31, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBolsonaro criticizes a French court ruling banning Le Pen from office, calling it judicial activism. Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement, affecting her 2027 presidential bid.
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)
The main topic is Bolsonaro's criticism of the French court ruling against Marine Le Pen, labeling it as judicial activism.
Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement, which led to her being banned from seeking public office for five years.
Bolsonaro, facing his own legal challenges in Brazil, criticizes the ruling as part of a global pattern of judicial activism against right-wing leaders.
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