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u/mepassistants 7d ago
Context: When the hypocrisy of anti-EU parties profiting off the EU finally catches up. Bazinga
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u/Zealousideal-Deer724 7d ago
This nerds a little more explanation. Or link to an article.
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u/KToff 7d ago
She embezzled money by hiring people as EU parliamentary assistants to then work exclusively for her party in France. For this, she was found guilty and part of the judgement is an ineligibility to be elected into a public office while she had her eyes on a presidential candidacy for 2027.
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u/Vordreller 7d ago
Oh? Seems like exactly what Tom Vandendriessche is being investigated for.
Number 2 of Flemish extreme right party.
English article: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2024/07/18/european-public-prosecutor-launches-investigation-into-vlaams-b/
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u/flyfart3 7d ago
Oh? Seems like what Danish far right politician Morten Messerschmidt did
https://cphpost.dk/2021-08-02/news/morten-messerschmidt-trial-begins/
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u/AmusingVegetable 7d ago
Looks like the far-right parties are the same across Europe.
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u/Zzokker 7d ago
Maybe they should try unionising some day?
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u/BingpotStudio 6d ago
They tried that once. Axis was their name.
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u/HugiTheBot 6d ago
I feel like that could be a good start for a song.
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u/Garagantua 3d ago
Mate, if you don't know Sabaton, you're in for a ride ;).
Let's just say their latest album starts with the Track "Sarajevo" and ends with "Versailles".
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u/Makere-b 6d ago
I think they had some far right parties coalition thing going on at some point on EU level, but that didn't last long nor had much success.
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u/New_Passage9166 6d ago
The issue is they would then be an EU/European group and they are all nationalistic so they can't be a European group.
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u/thatcliffordguy 6d ago
It would be quite funny for them to see the benefits of uniting at a European level to get things done (or mostly block things in this case) but not see it for anything else.
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u/DeltaGammaVegaRho 7d ago
Can we please now sentence half the German AfD party for it, too? Would be really appreciated and helpful to not give them 1/3 of the parliament seats together with other Putin loyalists.
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u/EmberoftheSaga 6d ago
Ah, sadly those guys were a bit more careful, and in order for it to be prosecutable you need to do it really, really blatantly...
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u/WhiterabbitLou 6d ago
Yeah as a counterbalance their members openly glorify genocide and murder and an affiliated group has been found storing over 700 firearms of which an AfD member was part of but the trial is going on since a year and nothing.
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u/DeltaGammaVegaRho 6d ago
Sad. But let’s watch really close what they do - probably they’re not that carful with EU money as pro European parties.
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u/hvdzasaur 6d ago
They all work together, they're part of the same ID faction in the EU parliament.
All of them can get fucked.
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u/Plastic_Pinocchio Netherlands 7d ago
Our far right parties seem mostly just incompetent so far.
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u/ProudPPortuguese 6d ago
In Portugal was rape, pedophilia and luggage stealing by members of the far right
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u/Plastic_Pinocchio Netherlands 6d ago
Luggage stealing… what?
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u/AmusingVegetable 6d ago
Oh yeah. He took a large luggage, then picked something smaller for the luggage claim belt, went to the WC and put the stolen one on the large one, then sold it on the internet.
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u/Vargoroth 5d ago
Oh is he? Good. Let that ridiculously racist and sexist party collapse on top of itself.
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u/Maje_Rincevent 2d ago
Not even only for the party, among the beneficiaries of the scheme are her dad's housekeeper and her sister.
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u/coppercrackers 7d ago
Link to an article? Literally google her name. Like it’s right there, everywhere.
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u/rimalp 7d ago
Only in France tho.
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u/Fleeting_Dopamine 6d ago
Seems like exactly what Tom Vandendriessche is being investigated for.
Number 2 of Flemish extreme right party.
English article: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2024/07/18/european-public-prosecutor-launches-investigation-into-vlaams-b/
OR
Seems like what Danish far right politician Morten Messerschmidt did
https://cphpost.dk/2021-08-02/news/morten-messerschmidt-trial-begins/
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u/cornedbeef101 7d ago
At least one country is holding corrupt politicians to account.
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7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/cornedbeef101 7d ago
But still.. one being successfully sentenced is more than <checks notes> .. the zero in every other western nation.
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u/DisIsMyName_NotUrs 7d ago
Didn't Romania also ban Georgescu from running because he took Russian funds?
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u/Ok-Chemical3 7d ago
When you say western nations, are you implying that corrupt politicians are actually held accountable in non western countries?
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u/cornedbeef101 6d ago
Not at all! I really don’t have the mental bandwidth to follow other region’s political news as closely as I do EU and US, but I don’t expect they’re doing a better job.
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u/bzhgeek2922 7d ago edited 7d ago
Well we have another interesting one in progress:
Sarkozy - Khadafi:
And Sarkozy already has an electronic tag for corruption and influence peddling.
It becomes increasingly difficult to escape justice like many politicians did before.
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u/sweetvisuals 6d ago
No need to escape justice if all you get for starting a whole war to silence a witness is a slap on the wrist
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u/Jadem_Silver 7d ago
And next it will be Bayrou (Current prime minister) and Sarkozy (former president).
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u/Cylian91460 7d ago
Bayrou (Current prime minister)
Who currently has some legal issues with bétharram (I didn't follow it a lot pls rectify if I'm wrong)
Basically he covered pedos at a school that his kids were in and her wife is a teacher there. He said he wasn't aware but it's a lie.
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u/Jadem_Silver 7d ago
He always lies... but he give us a wonderful meme recently by saying : "hmmm burger king" during one of his townhall reunion. Just go on YT and type : Bayrou hmmm burger King And you'll find it
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u/Tuivre 7d ago
You know it’s funny that we’re now praised for this. 20 years ago you’d have screamed, given how corrupt everyone was and the little blame in return. Basically the whole 80s/90s/00s was a giant political scandal with a lot of corruption from either political side really, hell even de Gaulle was not completely clean on this, and there never were meaningful sanctions, at least not against the big political figures, with no real consequences on the electorate.
According to several journalists and judges who were reporting and investigating corruption cases, there was a shift in 2008. The financial crisis that led to austerity shifted the public perception of corruption and it became politically damaging, and there was an expectation that the judges do more.
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u/cornedbeef101 6d ago
Very interesting. At least something good came from 08 then, I guess. I hope today, and the Romania case as others have pointed out, are a start of an increasing shift toward accountability of our elected representatives.
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u/Wrong-Wasabi-4720 4d ago
We still don't score high on Transparency international scale. Corruption in building, state attributing contracts, high functionaries getting into private office for intel and network....
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u/Tuivre 3d ago
True but it used to be so much worse. All those things existed before AND no one cared/got sentenced. Think Balkany or Chirac, they already had a long judicial history before becoming more prominent and none of them actually had to pay anything. Like when Roland Dumas validated the campaign spending of Chirac in 1995 while he actually knew it was skewed. Something as big cannot happen today or is much harder to pull off
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u/Vinaytrahrhe 7d ago
Kinda depressing being german with the whole AFD thing, i feel dirty when i think about it honestly. Just generally fuck Nazis and Nationalists. People gotta stick together and not whatever is happening in the world rn.
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u/Acceptable-Worth-462 7d ago
Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
We only held 2 politicians accountable this year. Plenty more to go.
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u/Indian_Pale_Ale 7d ago
Uhh, if it was only so simple. It takes years and usually politicians involved in such affairs are just politically dead. This affair took years to be judged, and a lot easily get away with it.
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u/Alarmed-Ad-4394 6d ago
I wish germany would do that. We have far-right politicians that goes on to say the most illegal shit (according to german law) and get illegal funding from outside of europe (alice weidel talk with elon musk) and what did they get? nothing. they even got more popular.
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u/justV_2077 6d ago
Why are French so based? How are they so good at everything? No surprise the French Revolution succeeded (for reference: the German revolution failed) and the guillotine was invented in France.
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u/9gag_refugee 6d ago
This has given me so much respect for the Fr*nch that I will start writing it without the censoring from now on. For at least 2 weeks.
French - here, I did it.1
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u/trito_jean 6d ago
lol about that the current french prime minister did the exact same and got nothing
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u/MoistIndicator8008ie 7d ago
Constant Ws for Europe lately
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u/El_Chara 7d ago
Genuinely first time in my life where I don't feel compelled to shit on my own country
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u/No_Business_4809 4d ago
We (the rest of Europe, USA, Canada, you know who I mean...) where shitting on the French the whole time, but now it turns out you guys where right all along...
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u/El_Chara 4d ago
Oh no please don't think we're right we have terrible leadership but the one thing we're good at is shitting on the leadership because we all want to take part in a massive revolution so they're forced to stop anything before it gets too big. The price of gas got raised by a euro per kilogram or something and we ended up with a 3 year movement of people blocking roads and making literal fort with scrap under bridges that only stopped because of COVID
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u/Buttercups88 7d ago
seems really common that far right leaders are criminals. Its almost like there extreme standpoint on everyone being a criminal is because they cant imagine that anyone who has the opportunity to be corrupt or criminal doesn't jump on it.
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u/Semaex_indeed 7d ago
I blame it on their parents: failed to provide them with a moral compass, unsurprisingly leads to being a racist and corrupt.
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u/chevalmuffin2 6d ago
In le pen's case, her father (rest in piss) made her call Hitler "tonton Dolphy"
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u/xFuManchu Ireland 7d ago
In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed "more and more European capitals are going down the path of trampling over democratic norms"
Translation, please don't start diving into other far right funding Europe, it definitely won't turn up Russian interference along with this type of embezzlement.
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u/SGarnier 7d ago
For context, the EU in itself has nothing to do with that, it's only French law about illegal use of European deputy's funds.
Something that party has been doing again and again at every level of political mandate they reach... 🙄
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u/rasplight 7d ago
Funny how far right figures end up being convicted for things that, according to them, are done by the establishment (TM).
"The EU is wasting money!" - gets convicted for misusing EU funds
"They are r*pists" - gets convicted for sexual assault
etc.
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u/Imperatia 6d ago
Well, Goebbels did say: accuse the other side of that which you yourself are guilty of doing.
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u/DumbFish94 7d ago
It's great what happened but won't the national front now get even more popularity in the 2027 elections because right wingers think it's politically motivated and now the national front will have a younger face
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u/NewOil7911 7d ago
They're gonna get a surge in popularity now.
But it's a long way to go until 2027, especially in the current crazy world. There is time for 2 wars and one financial crisis between now and 2027...
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u/PomeloSuitable8658 7d ago
No popularity won't change, what you could fear is the apparition of really more right wing candidates with huge scores The real winner in this BS is obviously Eric Zemmour if he try again, he could do a good score and consolidate his views as completely mainstream right wing
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u/Olliethekid83 6d ago
We can't keep putting off punishing politicians for crimes to appease the right wing.
I'm sure she'll make a whole stink out of this and far too many people will believe it's a political witch hunt, but the average undecided voter might actually get the hint that even if they feel strongly on immigration, the RN is not a party you can rely on.
Also, with the number of times this sort of thing seems to happen with right wing politicians, if we keep actually holding them accountable, they'll never get a viable candidate to the ballot box. Or at least not one that will do anything but shout on tiktok and curl up into a ball when asked a simple policy question.
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u/Fenrir426 6d ago
Well yes, but 2027 is still far and in France, especially with the current state of politics everything can change drastically very quickly
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u/Rakatonk Europe 7d ago
Yesssss. Throw her back into the cesspit where she crawled out.
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u/KlogKoder 7d ago
She must be taken deep into the Far Right and cast back into the shitty chasm from whence she came. One of you, must do this.
One does not simply walk into the Far Right...
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u/switchquest 6d ago
I disagree.
It's not Europe that lead to Le Pens downfall.
It was HER (and her party) misuse and embezzlement of EU funds that lead to her downfall.
Nobody to blame but herself. 🤷♂️
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u/SordidDreams 7d ago
I'd be very wary of calling this a victory. It's a postponement. She's only ineligible for five years. She'll be back worse than ever, just like Trump after the Biden presidency.
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u/PomeloSuitable8658 7d ago
Or not, honestly she's a poor right winger, she spent more than 15 years trying to "normalize" her party and many already said 10 years ago that she will never be president
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u/SordidDreams 6d ago
Isn't she leading the polls? Her conviction is likely to further galvanize her support due to the right's persecution complex being validated (in their eyes). A five year ineligibility to stand for office is five more years for Russian propaganda to do its thing. I see little reason for optimism.
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u/Careless_Wolf2997 6d ago
Five years of no campaigning is a death sentence for popularity, especially with funding by interest groups, who only care about you if you can actually forward bills.
The right also tends to eat itself in these situations and rarely throw up the same person that repeatedly failed again and again to secure shit.
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u/Subject-Background96 7d ago
As French let me tell you, this is not good. ITS AMAZING. Hope Sarkozy joins her prison cell soon, and they give that money back.
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u/CallForGoodThyme 7d ago
As long as you don’t spend the next five years patting yourself on the back and actually prepare for her inevitable return.
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u/Laithani 6d ago
And then you see Bardellas open letter (her protégé of sort) accusing the justice of robbing the people of the choice of having a candidate less for presidential elections.
So, how about you shut your damn mouth and accept, she's just being punished for doing something illegal, you know? How fucking deluded do you have to be to be to bark such nonsense, gaslight levels on the roof.
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u/Imperatia 6d ago
I'm sure she'll somehow twist it into being political prosecution and her followers will eat it all up. Though that may be just me being increasingly more cynical after everything that's happened recently.
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u/Amenophos 5d ago
Nope, the party's already at it, claiming it's breaking democracy... You know, throwing s criminal in jail regardless of social and political status... Oh, how HORRIBLE!😱🤦
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u/chevalmuffin2 6d ago
LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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u/TheLifelessNerd 6d ago
However, I am scared this will further propel the popularity of FN, in some weird way. Far-right voters will amaze us all with their stupidity.
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u/Strangeideals1982 6d ago
France, I salute you! Please teach us Americans how to do them same….PUH-LEEZE!
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u/Emotional_Money3435 6d ago
EU actually has somewhat of a working democracy, its not perfect but its something.
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u/fortytwoandsix 6d ago
Her downfall was her greed and her hubris that she is above the law like her sugar daddy in the Kremlin.
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u/Viguier 7d ago
Don't worry, it just makes the RN even more popular for some reason beyond my comprehension, Jordan Sebardelà will be elected with 55% of the votes, destroying in the same time European integration and everything positive France has done since the war in Ukraine.
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki 7d ago
alright, but can we do the same thing if, just hypothetically, judges have ruled the crime is legal if the right does it? asking for a helpme
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u/LOLofLOL4 7d ago
I have no clue who Le Pen is, but fuck that Guy.
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u/Amenophos 5d ago
*woman. She's the daughter of a Nazi that founded a national party after the War, and is pretty much like her dad, just moe careful about HOW she expresses her racism and white supremacy, so they don't get banned.
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u/Dafrenchee 7d ago
It just open a boulevard to Bardella sadly. Where chances were slim to get LePen president due to her name, Bardella is a virgin compared to her and that could be dangerous
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u/Dr_Occo_Nobi 7d ago
All of those Right-Wing Populists are the same. Lying and cheating for personal gain, that's all they know to do. Disgusting.
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u/palasolaris 7d ago
Yeah the fraud is real bad. But now more than 12-20 voters have no candidate. So it might get even more extreme from here. Because le pen is righr wing only on immigration. Economically doesn't change much from the left
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u/donovan_x_griffith 7d ago edited 6d ago
Sorry to break your hopes but now it's basically a free win for her successor Bardella. Marine Le Pen and her infamous name were the last thing that was holding the RN from a big presidential victory. Now she is also a "martyr" which will boost RN and Bardella's popularity.
It's literally the best outcome for the far right but yea congratz i guess.
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u/venerable-vertebrate 6d ago
We'll see whether a couple years with an ankle monitor is really going to be her "downfall". What it certainly will be is an excuse for her party to say "this was politically motivated, the government is undemocratic, we will save democracy"
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u/Easy-North2167 6d ago
And our prime minister Orban already stated 'je suis Marine'. It was either a coming out or his guilty consciousness found a tiny window for a second in his mess of a mind, I can't tell.
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u/Secure-Key-8334 6d ago
You poor and ignorant fascist fool.
You have no idea just how much this helps her party in the long run.
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u/Lizzy_Of_Galtar 6d ago
What did she say once? Every once in a while France is revolutionary?
No head rolling for you but it's the next best thing ;)
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u/Recent_Loan_2380 5d ago
Surely banning popular politicians from running for political reasons is gonna end great… I cant stand Le Pen but the double standard is very obvious to everyone and its gonna lead to her being in power one way or another. This and Romania isn’t making Europe look particularly democratic.
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u/leginfr 5d ago
Lol: Le Pen herself said that politicians who abuse their position should be banned and voted for it. The issue is not the ban but whether it should take effect now or wait until after her appeal. But France has learnt from Trump: he delayed the court cases until he was in a position to quash them. If the ban was postponed until after the appeal then Le Pen would use every trick in the book to delay the decision until after the elections. Now, if she wants a decision before them, she has to cooperate, not delay.
Just a reminder that she was in the European Parliament from 2004-2017. So the case has been dragged out for over a decade already…
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u/Recent_Loan_2380 4d ago
Itll work out the same as it did for trump and youre gonna rage on reddit when she takes power
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u/ohtimesohdailymirror 4d ago
I think other countries should follow France’s example by making abuse of public money by elected representatives punishable by forbidding them to stand for parliament or any other elected office.
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u/why_tf_am_i_like_dat France 3d ago
I was very happy to learn that she couldn't run for president lmao
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u/stonesia 7d ago
Didn't she loudly cry about how EU:s funding was being grossly abused and misused? Indeed, every allegation a confession...