What kind of "embezzlement" was this? Is it anything like what Elon Musk and DOGE are finding in the United States?
Le Pen and 24 party members, including nine former members of the European parliament and their 12 parliamentary assistants, were found guilty of a vast scheme over many years to embezzle European parliament funds, by using money earmarked for European parliament assistants to instead pay party workers in France. The so-called fake jobs system covered parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016, and was unprecedented in scale and duration, causing losses of €4.5m to European taxpayer funds. Assistants paid by the European parliament must work directly on Strasbourg parliamentary matters, which the judges found had not been the case....
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The law's the law, but it's curious that so many nations are attempting to keep anti-progressive candidates off the ballot, and largely succeeding.
From X: “Marine Le Pen in France, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Imran Khan in Pakistan, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Donald Trump in America, Calin Georgescu in Romania
The criminal prosecution of every populist challenger is a dagger in the heart of the credibility of democracy.”
sacre merde bleu!
"What kind of "embezzlement" was this?"
I'm shocked ! Shocked to find that embezzlement is going on in here!
Mike Benz says: Marine Le Pen in France, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Imran Khan in Pakistan, Matteo Salvini in Italy, Donald Trump in America, Calin Georgescu in Romania.
"In western liberal democracies jailing or shooting the opposition candidate is quickly becoming the preferred election strategy" - Auron MacIntyre
'Western liberal democracy'.
What I do not get about LePen - is she never wins. Ever. and she never will.
As far as corruption - is it real? or fake?
I'd bet fake.
24 people over twelve years only managing to "steal" 4.5 million euros? Right. The problem for the EU isn't merely that they're thumbing their noses at American warnings about democratic deficits, it's that they have to double down merely to survive. But they're also trying to run a trade war with America and attack Russia militarily while doing so. In short, the Europeans increasingly resemble mad bandits owned by foreigners like Zelensky. And America would be justified to prepare for real war with the EU, starting with the defense of Hungary and Serbia.
+1 to Lucien during yesterday’s open comments.
Could this be categorized as a Biden Export?
Basicially, they had assistants who were supposed to work entirely on EU matters, but Le Pen had them work sometimes on party or election matters. So, its just a ticky-tacky violation. A grey area. And no doubt common practice with other EU parliment members.
Except the Globalist establisment wanted to find Le Pen guilty of something, and found this. And then threw the book at her. Its no different then the lawfare against Trump.
In larger scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. Her party was never going to hold power, because the French leftwing working class would rather be ruled be neo-liberal big Business Macron than ally with the National rally party.
Its was hilarious that the stupid working class goobers ended up with 2 extra years before they got their French social security check because they loved Macron - their savior from the Le Pen.
Macron will keep screwing them to the wall - and they'll take it. Because at least that Goddamn National Rally party wont get in power!
I really have zero respect for any legal system that is going after "populist" candidates. It's happening too many places all at once. "Coincidently" just after Klaus the Kreep and the evil WEF put out a video saying "populism must be destroyed."
After all, actual legitimate Democracy and Republican government do indeed put a kink in the evil one-world-government kreeps and perhaps a stray B-2 can drop a bunker buster on the WEF on the way back from Diego Garcia. Do us all a favor.
Look for Germany to do something similar to the AFD leaders. Put them in jail, or force the party to disband over some legal technicality. The Globalist european elite have a plan, and they don't intend for Democracy to get in their way.
The EU is corrupt. Macron is corrupt. So let's arrest LePen!
Why does that prohibit her from running for office? Curious law!
Talkin' 'bout a revolution, well y'know . . . .
they did it to fillon, the center right candidate and his successor beyrou
"Basicially, they had assistants who were supposed to work entirely on EU matters, but Le Pen had them work sometimes on party or election matters."
From the Homeland Security website:
"TSA has more people doing full-time union work than we have performing screening functions at 86% of our airports.
Nearly 200 TSA Officers are paid by the government but work full-time on union matters."
Do you suppose any of those union matters have a political component?
I assume that LePen has a backup plan for another candidate who will run in her place and who is committed to 1) carrying out her program and 2) securing her exoneration. Will the French government go after that candidate too?
If the French people want to elect their leader, then they need to set up a guillotine and start chopping heads off.
They don't GIVE up power. You TAKE it from them.
"Fight, fight, fight!"
It is political maneuvering to keep off the ballot someone who might win... Gee, where do you think they came up with that idea? Anybody who hates playing politics with law should hope she wins the appeal...
Win COMPETITIVELY, not by fixing the game. You boomers accepted that in AMerica for far too long (you didn't have to compete with the best minds coming up, only the DEI candidates who came through...).
No special rights for "special" peoples. Keep the playing field level, for everyone. Women, whites, men, blacks, hispanics, queers, asians, etc... (yes, even the forever persecuted "Jewish" folk who now have a special Anti Semitism department of government, and who have managed to have "mandatory holocaust teaching" required in some states. The Jews pushed this whole "be a victim! win special favors!" think... it's going to, and already is, backfiring on them badly...
Don't expect you or any of the co-hens to understand though. Wouldn't it be nice to be treated equally under the law, all of us??
Of course, it could be worse. They could run over you with a bus. Like Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre was, according to The New York Post. She's on death's bed.
Where? The Post curiously don't say.
When? They curiously don't say.
How? They curiously don't say.
Did police investigate? They curiously don't say.
Where's the accident report? They curiously don't say.
I, for one, find amusement in the European elites adopting the same philosophy as the US federal government, where any citizen going about their normal daily business is very likely guilty of at least three felonies a day. Make 'em all criminals so it is easier to punish failures to adhere to the party line!
The EU and Brazil are approaching the point of no return. How anyone can argue they practice democracy with a straight face is beyond me --- and an increasing number of their citizens as well.
the term "democracy" comes from the greek words
demos: meaning people
and
cracy : meaning RULE
This means, that; As We ALL KNOW:
democracy MEANS "rule the people"
people NEED to Understand; that there is NOTHING in the concept of "democracy" that permits these anti government factions to attempt to destroy government rule.
Support BIG BROTHER! Support ruling the people!!
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
learn it! live it! love it! and LOVE BIG BROTHER!!!
"Will the French government go after that candidate too?"
Yes, they will if they have to but the more likely thing to happen is that these convictions will be used to disqualify the entire party from all elections. Same thing is likely to happen in Germany at some point in the next year or two since the present government will likely fall before the next mandated election date.
The lines separating standard operating procedures from crime can be very thin indeed. Laura Richardson D-Ca was reprimanded by the US House of Representatives in 2011 for using staffers on her reelection campaigns. A good lawyer could have spared her much trouble.
You don't put it in writing that your House staffers (and their spouses) have to participate in your campaign events. You just put out a vibe for them to pick up. Volunteer campaign work is allowed for Congressional staffers and may even be expected. As in most cases, the cover-up was more damaging for Richardson than the "crime" at the bottom of it, and as in so many cases, Richardson had a long list of other offenses but claimed she was being unfairly singled out for prosecution.
The funniest part of the whole story is that she gained prominence by speaking out against the EU...a hard lesson for turkeys.
There is an old Polish-Jewish saying that “when Cain has his cow stolen then this is a scandal and outrage however when Cain himself steals a cow then this is OK.”
Exactly the reasoning and mindsets of all these Orbans, Peskovs et consortes. Just waiting for Vance and Musk to express their indignation!
"Democracy is like a train: when we reach our destination, we get off".
This describes the Left everywhere these days. They tried to do the exact same thing to Trump and if it weren't for the fact that there were 6 nominally conservative justices on SCOTUS, Trump would have actually been removed from the ballots in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Michigan along with a lot of or all of the states Harris did win anyway.
I take it Charlie Hebdo (resistance to pressure) is not in the French DNA. Otherwise, Le Pen, like Trump, would be a shoe in... should she survive until the election after her release. Jesus. Like miracle Max said. 'It will take a miracle.'
because eurasia won't abide any critique, like the farmer crushing net zero, that macron has indulged, outright marxists like melanchon, go ahead,
Ultimately anyone can have a case built against them.
Bich, we already know you support such shenanigans since you have been supporting them for 2 years now in the US. You don't have tell us this every single day.
The globalist regime around the world is anti democratic.
They are a parasite class that depends on dissolving sovereignty and resorting to power and rather than persuasion because nobody wants them in power over them.
They are losing their control over populations and will soon be hunted down like every other set of fascist rulers who have lost control.
The spirit of Alfred Dreyfus takes notice.
If Putin is criticizing the "trampling of democratic norms", you know you are doing something right.
This happened to Trump too, in NY Colorado and ME. But at least scotus stopped it.
And look at the thought crimes that the U.K. is punishing people for. At this point Russia can have them.
I have no doubt there are plenty of European politicians who could be found guilty of the exact same charges. This smells like a nakedly partisan political prosecution.
https://x.com/Osint613/status/1906644030345167221
DOGE just revealed the Democrats put millions of illegals on Social Security and Medicaid... And got them to vote!
The obvious question is that did the investigation for lePen include a total investigation of all staffers of all parties or was it selective prosecution. Only going after the "right" jay-walkers. Prosecutorial discretion is a means to abuse the disfavored.
Someone with more AI facility than me needs to put Marine’s head on Dreyfus’s body:
https://youtu.be/E3kJ7tTumWQ?si=wVJ9NiME-yRGN0rA
JSM
Actually, there was plenty of evidence that showed Dreyfus was guilty. He should have been freed after it was disclosed he wasn't guilty - but the case became a political football. As with the Leo Frank case, Jewish organizations tried to make it all about "anti-semitism".
Le Pen doesn't have to worry about that. LOL.
After watching how democrats manufactured a law against Trump, NO ONE, especially not Europeans get the benefit of the doubt.
It is instructive to note that the French Communist Party was never outlawed. I can't recall there being any criminal prosecutions against it......The French left has visited far more misfortunes upon France than the French right.....DeGaulle wanted to equip two mechanized tank brigades to defend against Hitler. This was vetoed. The French left was afraid that he would use those two brigades to overthrow the government. Being too zealous in opposition to Hitler was considered Fascist......The OG Resistance was made up up Gaullists and Communists. The Communists were afraid that the Gaullists would seize power after the defeat of the Nazis. It is claimed that they reported the Gaullists to the Nazis to forestall such an event. In any event, Gaullists were more often arrested than Communists. There are some sorrows and pities to be reported among the victims of the French left.........Napoleon was a Jacobin at heart. To pursue the goals of liberty, equality, and fraternity he sent a 50,000 man army to re-establish slavery in the French West Indies.
Her crime was the same as the crimes of other popular populist politicians from Romania to Pakistan, she opposed the globalists and their wars.
Like the other arrested politicians, she led in the polls and opposed the conflict in Ukraine. Meloni of course simply renounced the populist, anti-war, anti-globalist platform on which she was elected to avoid this fate.
This is what we sent our sons to die in Europe for, this is why my father fought the Nazis. Germany of course is busy outlawing the political party for being against the war and anti-globalist.
This was to be Trump's fate, and I am not sure what made them hang fire on it.
"The obvious question is that did the investigation for lePen include a total investigation of all staffers of all parties or was it selective prosecution. "
How many other New York State real estate developers had decades of their books combed over in minute detail in search of crimes to be determined through novel interpretations of old laws?
Now that the authoritarians have tipped their heavy hand by eliminating their populist candidates (or nullifying their successful runs), now it's down to the war of the economies. Whose GDP will win, in the tariff arena? Will it be the EU, with the UK as a spiritual collaborator, but not a member? What will the EU do with Poland and Italy as dissenters, and possible Romania as well? This shows up why the cancellation of Le Pen and Georgescu is so important. The EU cannot compete without a full team of assenting collaborators. I bet Trump starts wooing the member states disposed to look for political allies. The tyrants got ahead of themselves, announcing their support of Ukraine before they did the Defense Spending math. I suspect the Trump team is a few steps ahead, but we shall see.....
I haven't read whether Le Pen has any path to appeal in her case.
"If Putin is criticizing the "trampling of democratic norms", you know you are doing something right."
I guess Ka ka just proved that these arrests of popular politicians are fully justified because otherwise Putin would never have pointed out any hypocritical actions by the West. Because, you know, rival powers *never* point out hypocrisy in their rivals.
Basically the NYT just saw fit to publish an article admitting that the US has been at war since 2022, and if we had just re-elected Biden, that bastard Putin's head would already by on a spike in Lafayette Square! So what they have done is cemented the alliance of China and Russia for decades to come, since it made it plain that this was another in a long line of wars by the West against Russia, from the Crimean War, Napoleon's invasion, Hitler's invasion, now the Ukrainian gambit, and the obvious implication of this article is that the West will never, ever be mollified until we collapse and divide up the Russian Federation and turn 1/6th of the land surface of the planet into a resource colony for Europe.
Invasions go from population to resources, Europe->Russia, not resources to population, Russia has never invaded Europe and never will because it would make no sense.
I forgot Sweden's invasion of Russia.
This is reminiscent of a case in PA involving the Orie sisters. Both were convicted of corruption for having employees do campaign work. I've always presumed that employees of state reps would be involved in the campaigns of their employers. This looked like political persecution to me.
They are losing their control over populations and will soon be hunted down like every other set of fascist rulers who have lost control.
I am in favor of this. Some exemplary medieval punishments of our corrupt, untrustworthy hired help are long overdue, here and in Europe. Let's put real fear in the hearts of the enemy scum.
Never, ever, ever miss an opportunity to hold the government up for mockery, belittlement, contempt, obstruction, hatred, and sabotage.
Never, ever, ever miss an opportunity to vigorously investigate corrupt civil "servants" and punish them far more harshly than private citizens for their violations of the public trust.
Never, ever, ever miss an opportunity to strip the government of power, prestige, personnel, job security, revenue, and weaponry.
If you are not actively working to undermine the government every day, you are actively working for your own enslavement and that of your posterity.
Government is far and away the most dangerous and evil enemy that mankind has. At all times and in all nations, the most wicked people in society are always to be found in government or in its close orbit. The people must never trust it, never glorify it, never take their boot off its throat, and always raise their children to hate it.
I'll never forget Christmas 1989, when Nikolai Ceausescu, perhaps the most oppressive dictator on the planet, was marched before a wall with his equally wicked wife, and machine-gunned into a pile of hamburger by the oppressed people of Romania.
I hoped it would be more of a trend thereafter. I said then and I say again now, there are politicians in every country on the planet who richly deserve the same treatment.
4.5 million Euros? Unprecedented fraud? Hell, USAID would waste that much over lunch...
Aggie said...
"I haven't read whether Le Pen has any path to appeal in her case."
"...She is almost certain to appeal, and neither the prison sentence nor the fine would be applied until her appeals are exhausted. Appeals in France can take months or even years.
But her five-year ban from running for office kicks in immediately, via a so-called "provisional execution" measure requested by prosecutors, and will be lifted only if any appeal is upheld before the election. She retains her parliamentary seat until her term ends."
This was from Reuters, but it appears that they have re-written the article since it was quoted over at Hot Air today.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/frances-le-pen-faces-crunch-day-graft-trial-that-could-kill-her-presidential-2025-03-31/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter
And there's this:
"Pierre Lellouche, a lawyer and former Deputy of the French National Assembly, appeared on CNEWS to point out that the current prime minister, François Bayrou, faced the same charge and suffered no consequences.
“Then, last but not least, there is the case of (François) Bayrou, the current prime minister, who has been prosecuted for exactly the same thing, i.e., for abuses of party funding declared as parliamentary assistants in Europe, at the EU parliament. Bayrou emerged from this affair without being in the least concerned. In fact, the public prosecutor’s office has once again referred the matter to the courts, but even so, we’re dealing with a double standard here. It’s a bit surprising.”"
https://rmx.news/article/breaking-judge-rules-marine-le-pen-ineligible-to-run-for-president-in-2027-in-latest-blow-to-democracy-in-europe/
I'd wager she didn't say 'Incredible' but rather 'Incroyable'
Prediction: it will have to get worse in France before it gets better.
Joe Biden, Schumer, the entire Democrat Party establishment must be green with envy. Damn, if only we had the French system, Trump would be jail!
Supposedly, Biden was angry at Garland for waiting so long to start his show trials against Trump. Stalin felt the same about Yagoda. Stalin had Yagoda shot. Biden could only fume.
So, others have been charged and convicted of the same crime as Le Pen, and got off with a slap of the wrist. Shades of the J6ers and BLM/antifa. Or Trump's mishandling of Classifed materials (supposedly) and Biden's.
Le Pen will be on French TV tonight, so we'll see her response.
“we’re dealing with a double standard here. It’s a bit surprising”
This guy was born yesterday, apparently.
Le Pen suggested France was not responsible for the wartime round-up of Jews who were sent to Nazi death camps.
Her stance is at odds with former president Jacques Chirac and current premier Francois Hollande, who have both apologized for the role played by French police in the rounding up of 13,000 Jews at the Vel d’Hiv cycling track in Paris,ordered by the Nazis in July 1942.
“I don’t think France is responsible for the Vel d’Hiv,” Le Pen told French broadcaster LCI on Sunday, arguing that the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime “was not France.”
“I think that generally speaking if there are people responsible, it’s those who were in power at the time. It’s not France,” she added.
According to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, some 1,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz every two or three days in the two months following the arrests at Vel d’Hiv. Nearly 38,000 Jews had been deported to Auschwitz from France by the end of September 1942. By 1945, just 780 of them remained alive.
Le Pen’s comments led French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to suggest that the far-right party leader had “showed her true colors.”
Le Pen later defended her comments in a statement, claiming: “I consider that France and the Republic were in London during the occupation and that the Vichy regime was not France.”
4.5 million Euros
Over 12 years
Involving 24 party members
Some basic math says that on average that's 375,000 Euros a year or 15,625 Euros/party member/year
Yep, unprecedented embezzlement, that.
And on that basis barred from running for President? Plus Jailtime?
Contemplate that Burisma paid Hunter Biden alone more than that on a per annum basis for nothing more than access to Joe Biden, our VP at the time, and influence at the State Department.
Contemplate that we have more direct evidence of Biden family corruption than that entire case...
If Macron has the sense and the power, he should pardon her. She'll be stronger as a martyr.
lonejustice said...
Le Pen suggested France was not responsible for the wartime round-up of Jews who were sent to Nazi death camps.
Her stance is at odds with former president Jacques Chirac and current premier Francois Hollande, who have both apologized for the role played by French police in the rounding up of 13,000 Jews at the Vel d’Hiv cycling track in Paris,ordered by the Nazis in July 1942.
...
Total shocker that someone as disingenuous as lonejustice would find a way to excuse the totalitarian regime jailing political opponents in France.
The US and Trump/Musk are demonstrating that a solid majority of people in our country are above this pathetic moral cowardice on display here.
Europe is doing the same think Zelensky did.
They are all anti-democratic fascist assholes. There is no difference between Zelensky, Macron, and Putin. They are all the same.
All typical of the left. Every populous leader in Europe and America has been attacked, and it is going to get worse. We are in a civil war now, but Republicans, conservatives, haven't figured that out yet.
Once Trump is out of office, or even before, they will attempt to put him in prison, for life. Musk will be driven out of America, and stripped of his companies. Unfortunately for the left, they can't run the companies, only steal from them.
It is so much like a Ayn Rand novel now.
She called it, decades ago. The democrats and the world leftists are incompetent, corrupt, and stupid. They can't do anything right, and exist to line their own pockets.
This ends in blood. No other way out at this point.
The French far right is gauche.
As Doctrev notes above, 4.5 million euros divided by 27 people over 12 years amounts to roughly $15,000 euros per person per year. Which is what the average Eurocrat in Brussels spends for lunch every couple of months. This is petty tyranny, the criminalization of politics.
One of the better breakdowns of it all from El Gato Malo: https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/le-pen-le-monde-and-the-spectre-over
All about accounting- like Trump's "felonies".
Amazing! Seventy comments and not one mentions the other world leader who just had his strongest opponent in an upcoming election arrested on bogus charges - and his college degree revoked! - because he was running way ahead of him in the polls. Recep Erdogan did just that to Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul, less than two weeks ago (March 19th). Erdogan's not a left-winger, but surely he deserves mention here?
Especially because Yancey Ward actually quotes him at 12:42pm, though not by name. Yes, it was Erdogan who said "Democracy is like a tram. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off."
We notice these things because theyr're coming thick and fast at the moment. But this is not new. Twenty years ago the Belgian courts closed down Vlaams Blok an increasingly electorally successful Flemish naionalist and anti-immigration party, by declaring its program to be in violation of anti-racism laws. No "embezzlement" just "your ideas are unacceptable." And these are the same ideas that Le Pen espouses - too much immigration of unassimilatable people.
The closedown was neatly Catch 22. You cannot legally raise private funds for political parties, above a paltry dime a year per person level, because "buying elections." But that's OK - the state will finance registered political parties equitably.
But if you've been found guilty of breaking anti-racism laws by wanting to stop immigration, you can't be registered for state funding.
"Erdogan's not a left-winger, but surely he deserves mention here?"
He is in left-winger in economic terms. As an Islamist, he is just opportunistic.
Should we remind the people who complain about the decision that she’s sold her brand as the solution against a corrupted elite.
She called for politicians convicted to be immediately barred from running in elections.
Apparently that was just for show.
The evidence laid down by the French investigative journal Mediapart and the justice is absolutely damning. Systematic embezzlement. She deserves every bit of the sentence.
But was it embezzlement embezzlement? Apparently, it was misallocation of funds -- maybe even fraud. Calling it embezzlement looks like bamboozlement.
Sounds like someone stole the proceeds of a bank robbery and the bank robbers caught them.
This smells of an excuse... They found a way to keep her out and took it. In reality this is probably common practice but the people with the power hold the cards and took her out. Perhaps it is time for another French Revolution. P.S. Gahrie is always on my mind.
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