After Le Pen ruling, accusations of 'lawfare' land in France

By Gabriel Stargardter

PARIS (Reuters) - When French far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused the judiciary of deploying a "nuclear bomb" to blow up her presidential hopes, she added France to the countries where accusations of "lawfare" - political meddling by judges - are gaining currency.

A Paris court convicted Le Pen and two dozen figures from her National Rally (RN) party of embezzling EU funds on Monday. It handed Le Pen an immediate five-year ban on running for office that will bar her from the 2027 presidential election unless she can get the ruling overturned on appeal before then.

Le Pen, RN allies and her supporters around the world including former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro - who is himself barred from office until 2030 - accused the trial judges of interfering in democracy.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told lawmakers on Tuesday that he "unconditionally supported" the judiciary. He said the ruling had not undermined democracy, but said he personally had "questions" about Le Pen's ban.

If politicians didn't like the law that allows judges to impose such bans, they should change it, he said. Eric Ciotti, an RN-allied lawmaker, said he would seek to do just that.

Nearly 60% of respondents said the ruling against Le Pen was fair given her crimes, according to an Elabe opinion poll, conducted for BFM TV and published after Monday's ruling, while 42% considered it was politically biased.

The poll said 42% of voters were happy with the verdict, with around a third unhappy and another third having no view.

Mathieu Carpentier, a constitutional law expert at Toulouse Capitole University, rejected the idea that Le Pen was a victim of "judicial warfare". The evidence against her was strong, he said, and her punishment was commensurate with those faced by a growing number of convicted politicians who have faced immediate bans, based on toughened anti-corruption laws passed in 2016.

Carpentier said France's independent justice system, along with its robust appeals process, provided a safeguard against rogue judgements.

However, France was no longer immune from political attacks on the justice system, he said.

"It's clear something is starting to rot in France," Carpentier said. "We are starting to assume that by default, as soon as judges deliver a decision we don't like, this decision is necessarily politically motivated."

He pointed to death threats before Monday's ruling against the prosecutors in Le Pen's case and one of the judges as evidence of France's civic malaise. Those threats continued after Judge Benedicte de Perthuis delivered her ruling, with her photo plastered across X and other far-right websites.

"Benedicte de Perthuis is the ugly leftist witch who banned Le Pen from running for office," one user posted on X, in one of many examples.

Le Pen, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin and the High Council for the Judiciary condemned the threats. Paris police confirmed a probe was underway, referring queries to the Paris prosecutor's office, which did not respond.

'PURE LAWFARE'

Bolsonaro called the Le Pen ruling "pure lawfare", adding: "This movement is spreading around the world. The left has found an easy way to perpetuate itself in power by using judicial activism".

U.S. President Donald Trump also drew links between the Le Pen ruling and his own court battles.

"She was banned for running for five years, and she's the leading candidate," he said. "That sounds very much like this country."

Trump was never banned from seeking office. He was convicted last year for falsifying documents to cover up payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. He has described that case and his other legal headaches as a leftist witch-hunt.

Vice President JD Vance and Trump's ally Elon Musk have also brandished accusations of lawfare against other European nations, including a bar by Romania's top court on far-right politician Calin Georgescu from running for president.

"You cannot win a democratic mandate by censoring your opponents or putting them in jail," Vance said in a February speech to the Munich Security Conference. "I believe ... shutting down elections, or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy."

While Le Pen railed against her sentence, she has pledged to pursue legal means to re-open her path to 2027, underlining her commitment to playing by the rules of France's Fifth Republic.

Her protege, 29-year-old party president Jordan Bardella, who is now the RN's de facto candidate for the 2027 vote, called on the French on Tuesday to rally in support of Le Pen but said they would be "democratic, peaceful, calm mobilisations".

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Frances Kerry)