Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally party, likened herself to civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday as she rallied against a court ruling barring her from running in the 2027 French presidential election. In a speech at a hastily organized protest beside the golden dome of Les Invalides in Paris, Le Pen expressed her outrage over the Paris criminal court’s decision last week, which convicted her of embezzling €2.9 million from the European Parliament through a fake jobs scandal spanning from 2004 to 2016.
The ruling has resulted in a two-year house arrest sentence, a €100,000 fine, and a five-year ban from holding public office. Le Pen’s comments were part of a broader push by her supporters to overturn the verdict on appeal. Addressing the crowd, she drew a parallel between her fight against the court decision and Martin Luther King Jr.’s struggle for civil rights in the United States during the 1960s. While the comparison was criticized by some as exaggerated, Le Pen’s rhetoric reflected the deepening divisions in French politics following the controversial ruling.
Le Pen, who has long been the front-runner for the 2027 presidency according to polling, vowed to continue her campaign against what she described as a political establishment intent on barring her from power. “I will never give up,” she declared. “The line we follow will never be that of brutality, but the peaceful one of Martin Luther King for the civil rights of American citizens oppressed at that time.” Her call for peaceful, democratic resistance echoed King’s nonviolent approach to fighting injustice.
The protest, which police estimated drew 7,000 attendees, was marked by the presence of right-wing populist leaders from across Europe, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, and Spanish Vox leader Santiago Abascal. The event underscored Le Pen’s attempt to frame herself as a victim of what she described as a broader European conspiracy to silence nationalist voices.
However, the mood at the rally appeared subdued, with only half-hearted chants of “Marine, présidente” and a noticeable lack of the fervor typically seen at her speeches. Jordan Bardella, a prominent member of her party and potential presidential candidate if Le Pen is unable to run, claimed that the court’s ruling had only served to galvanize her supporters, although the energy at the event did not reflect his assertion.
Le Pen’s rhetoric against the court ruling mirrored her claims that nationalists across Europe are being unfairly targeted. “In every European country, nationalists are prosecuted,” she said, further fueling her narrative of an establishment conspiracy designed to maintain power at the expense of the people. She denounced the ruling as part of a “perverse game” aimed at criminalizing opposition and undermining democracy.
Meanwhile, across the Seine, the radical left France Unbowed movement organized a protest against Le Pen and her populist agenda, with an estimated 5,000 people in attendance. In the suburbs, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp held a rally in support of Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister who is positioning himself as Macron’s party’s candidate for the 2027 election.
Le Pen’s legal battle is not over yet. She has the opportunity to appeal the decision in 2024, and much is riding on the outcome. The court ruling has brought her political career into sharp focus, and the upcoming appeal could shape the direction of France’s 2027 presidential race.
At the centrist rally, Attal responded sharply to Le Pen’s claims, saying, “How can you be credible with a juvenile delinquent if politicians don’t respect the rules? If you steal, you must pay for it.” The protests on both the left and right of the political spectrum signal that the French political landscape is bracing for a fierce and contentious battle leading up to the next presidential election.
