France's far right held a rally on Sunday to show support for their figurehead Marine Le Pen, who was this week convicted of embezzlement and banned from public office. At the same time, members of France's left wing alliance called for a demonstration in defence of the justice system, while the presidential Renaissance party gathered to urge citizens to defend democracy.
France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday vowed not to give up after she was found guilty on Monday of embezzlement and banned from taking part in elections.
Flag-waving members of her National Rally party and supporters packed the Place Vauban in Paris' 7th district on Sunday afternoon, with the glittering golden dome of the Hotel National des Invalides in the background.
Le Pen called her conviction a "political decision" and denounced a "witch hunt" against her party.
"People of France, let us mobilise to defend freedom, save democracy and support Marine!" Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party said on social media platform X ahead of the protest on Sunday.
On Monday, Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement and given a partly suspended jail term and an immediate ban on holding public office.
'Bombshell'
French President Emmanuel Macron has insisted the French judiciary is "independent".
Le Pen has lodged an appeal.
Does 'politically dead' Marine Le Pen still have a path to power?
However, the bombshell judgement stunned France's political establishment, with even some of her fiercest opponents saying the far-right leader should be allowed to stand in the 2027 vote.
Polls indicate Le Pen, 56, would easily top the first round of the two-round presidential vote if she ran – the latest survey by pollster Elabe for broadcaster BFMTV, released Saturday, showed her with up to 36 percent of the vote.
Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old head of the National Rally, said the ruling would only boost support for the party.
"It is not only Marine Le Pen who has been unjustly convicted. It is French democracy that is being executed on the basis of a simple court decision," Bardella told a crowd of supporters and party members who gathered at the Place Vauban.
But, he added, the party did not want to "discredit all judges".
The National Rally is the largest single party in the French parliament and can complicate life for Prime Minister François Bayrou, who does not have a majority in the lower house.
The Paris Court of Appeal said it would examine Le Pen's case within a timeframe that could potentially allow her to contest the polls if her conviction is overturned or her sentence changed.
Green spring fever
In response to the ruling and the political reactions, several leftwing forces planned a counter-rally at Paris' Place de la République at 1pm Sunday.
The French Green party (EELV) and the far-left France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) said they wanted to "remind people that the separation of powers and the rule of law are fundamental principles."
"Let's not let the far right rule!" they said on Thursday in response to the announcement of a demonstration by the National Rally (RN) to challenge Marine Le Pen's conviction.
"I don't want the only thing they [the public] see on Sunday, on all the TV channels, is Marine Le Pen's grand victimisation," explained the leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, told Franceinfo.
LFI, for its part, described Sunday's gathering as a simple "warm-up" to test the public reaction ahead of events scheduled for 1 May.
While supported by several youth organisations, the French Socialists and the Communist party chose not to participate in the rally.
Republican values under attack
In the north of Paris, at the Cité du Cinéma in Saint-Denis, supporters of President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party (formerly LREM) also gathered on Sunday with a keynote speech by party leader Gabriel Attal at 3.30pm.
The day of conferences, debates, and workshops, had already been planned since February, but Attal took advantage of the RN gathering at the same time to set up a face-off with Marine Le Pen.
"It is not up to us to say whether the judgment rendered is good or bad. It is up to us to always stick to the facts," Attal told the crowd, adding: "We are not happy about the National Rally using French people's taxes to pay a butler for Jean-Marie Le Pen, we deplore it. We are not happy about the National Rally using French people's taxes to pay Marine Le Pen's family, we deplore it.
"You steal, you pay," he said.
For the former Prime Minister's entourage, the situation is "already a foretaste of the presidential election" and an opportunity to ask the French if they really "want France to become Donald Trump's America," with "the same methods, the same accusations, the same character assassinations."
"In France and around the world, our institutions, our democracies, our justice systems have come under unprecendent attack," Attal wrote on social media X ahead of the rally.
"On Sunday, let's demonstrate together that there are women and men willing to defend these values."
US President Donald Trump called Marine Le Pen's sentence a "witch hunt" by "European leftists using lawfare to silence free speech, and censor their political opponent".
Bayrou rejected that remark as "interference" in French affairs, in a newspaper interview released Saturday.
The Prime Minister added that it was "neither healthy nor desirable" to stage a demonstration against the court ruling, insisting French institutions allowed for "the separation of powers and the defence of justice".
