Marine Le Pen's fight for her political life continued on Tuesday as her far-right National Rally (RN) party mobilised its big guns to champion a leader who was on Monday banned from political life for five years after being found guilty by a French court of misusing EU funds through a fake jobs scam.
RN president, Jordan Bardella, appeared on French TV and radio to hit out at what he described as a democratic scandal.
"Everything will be done to prevent us from coming to power," he told Cnews/Europe 1 in his first major interview in the wake of the judgment.
In the same interview, Bardella, 29, lashed out at the judges while condemning the threats and insults they had recieved following Monday's ruling.
One of France's top judges told French broadcaster RTL that complaints about the judges could lead to legal action.
"Justice is not political," said Rémy Heitz, public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation. "This is not a political decision but a judicial one, handed down by three independent, impartial judges... in accordance with the law, in application of texts voted for by lawmakers.
"The highly personalised attacks on judges are inadmissible. The threats may be the subject of criminal proceedings."
Fightback
On Monday night, Le Pen started the fightback in an interview on TF1.
She said the judges' decision was a disastrous day for French democracy. "I'm not going to let myself be eliminated like this," she added.
Le Pen said she would appeal against the verdict. "Judges have put in place practices that we thought were reserved for authoritarian regimes," she insisted.
On Tuesday, Le Pen pursued her invectives against the judiciary telling a meeting of the RN group in the National Assembly that the system had set off a nuclear bomb.
"If it is using such a powerful weapon against us, it is obviously because we are on the verge of winning an election," she added.
"The RN will not let the French have the presidential election stolen from them."
Le Pen, 56, was convicted of misappropriation of public funds. During the trial last year, Le Pen, the RN and 23 party figures were accused of diverting European Parliament cash to pay staff between 2004 and 2016 when the party was known as the National Front (FN).
The total amount embezzled was 4.4 million euros, of which 1.1 million euros has been reimbursed.
Presiding judge Bénédicte de Perthuis said that Le Pen and other defendants deserved an immediate ban from office.
"The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted ... was a candidate in the presidential election," she said.
Le Pen was also sentenced to four years' imprisonment, two of which will be served under an electronic bracelet, and a fine of 100,000 euros.
Le Pen allies decry witch-hunt as prosecutors threaten presidential hopes
Support
Before Bardella began his media offensive, Le Pen received support from politicians in Russia, Hungary, Brazil as well as the American president Donald Trump.
The Kremlin said it deplored a violation of democratic norms. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote on social media: "I am Marine!"
Speaking to reporters, Trump compared Le Pen's conviction to his own legal woes in the prelude to his sweep to power last November. "This is a very big story," he added.
"She no longer has the right to be a candidate for five years when she was leading the race."
Brazil's far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to ineligibility in Brazil, criticised what he called the persecution of Le Pen.
Le Pen has also garnered support from across the political spectrum in France.
Prime Minister François Bayrou, who was acquitted of similar charges but is awaiting a second trial, said he was disturbed by the verdict.
Le Pen and Orban forces unite in EU parliament forming new far-right bloc
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), who is also under investigation in a similar case, said: "The decision to remove an elected official from office should be a matter for the people."
Laurent Wauquiez of the conservative Republicans party described the decision as "very heavy-handed ...not very healthy in a democracy".
However, Ecologists, Socialists and Communists called for the decision to be respected. "No one is above the law, not even those who aspire to the highest office in the state," said a Socialist party statement.
