A French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from running in the 2027 presidential vote that many believed she could win, which caught the attention Monday of Elon Musk.
"When the radical left can't win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents," Musk posted Monday on X.
"This is their standard playbook throughout the world."
Le Pen, 56, was convicted of misappropriating European Union funds and given an immediate five-year ban from running for public office that will stand even pending appeals.
Unless she can get her sentence overturned before the 2027 election, her National Rally party will have to find a new candidate for the next election, most likely 29-year-old party President Jordan Bardella.
"Today, it is not only Marine Le Pen who is being unjustly convicted," Bardella wrote on X. "It is French democracy that is being executed."
Le Pen and her allies alleged a witch-hunt to keep her and the RN from power, echoing claims made by President Donald Trump over his legal woes as he campaigned last year to return to the White House.
"Unreal," Foundation for Freedom Online Executive Director Mike Benz posted Monday on X as the news broke. "They took out the opposition. Marine Le Pen, who is currently leading in opinion polls for the 2027 election in France, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison and banned from running in the next election."
Musk's comment above came in response to an ensuing Benz post, decrying the leftist weaponization of justice against populists worldwide.
"Marine Le Pen in France, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Imran Khan in Pakistan, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Donald Trump in America, Calin Georgescu in Romania," Benz wrote, prompting the Musk post. "The criminal prosecution of every populist challenger is a dagger in the heart of the credibility of democracy."
Information from Reuters was used to compile this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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