The Albany Gazette - France's Le Pen slams 'witch hunt' as political ban dominates rival rallies

Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party and centrist and left wing groups held rival meetings amidst renewed tensions six days after a Paris court convicted the 56-year-old of diverting European Union parliament funds.

Polls have made the RN figurehead the frontrunner ahead of a presidential election in two years and and the court sentence has stunned France's political establishment.

Le Pen spoke at one rally in central Paris to condemn the sentences against her and other RN officials. Her opponents backed the court decision. "If you steal, you pay," former prime minister Gabriel Attal told his supporters.

Le Pen, 56, was given a four-year jail term, with two years suspended, and banned from public office for five years.

"I won't give up," Le Pen told followers in a Paris square with the golden dome of the Hotel National des Invalides in the background. She said a "witch hunt" was behind the conviction.

"It is not a judicial decision, it is a political decision," she told supporters waving French flags and chanting "Marine! Marine!".

Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's deputy and RN chief, said there were 10,000 people at the rally. Police gave a figure of 7,000 but people at the rally said they had come from across France to support Le Pen.

Bardella, 29, said the party did not want to "discredit all judges" but the conviction was "a direct attack on democracy and a wound to millions of patriotic French people".

Amidst the divisive debate over the effect of the sentence on the election, the judges who convicted Le Pen have received death threats.

US President Donald Trump also called the sentence a "witch hunt" by "European leftists using lawfare to silence free speech".

President Emmanuel Macron has insisted however the French judiciary is "independent".

And the Paris Court of Appeal has said it would examine Le Pen's case in time for her to contest the 2027 election if the conviction is overturned or the punishment changed.

- 'Dangerous party' -

Left wing and centrist parties staged counter gatherings against the far right.

At a meeting of Macron's Renaissance party in a Paris suburb, Attal accused the far right of "attacking our judges, attacking our institutions".

"You steal, you pay," Attal said in a speech later in the day.

He denounced "unprecedented interference" in French affairs, pointing to support for Le Pen from the likes of Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Another left-wing gathering in Paris against the far-right drew about 3,000 people, according to police.

"The far right is a dangerous party, dangerous for democracy and dangerous for the rule of law," France Unbowed (LFI) coordinator Manuel Bompard told the event.

Ahead of Sunday's rally, Le Pen urged supporters to take inspiration from the non violent campaign in the United States for equal rights for black Americans.

"We will follow the example of Martin Luther King, who defended civil rights," she told members of Italy's hard-right League party, who were meeting in Florence, via video-link.

Le Pen has also compared herself to Alexei Navalny, Russia's late opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison in 2024 after being jailed under President Vladimir Putin.

Le Pen has worked to turn the RN into an electable force and rid it of the legacy of her father, its co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died in January and was frequently accused of racism.

The latest survey by pollster Elabe for broadcaster BFMTV, released on Saturday, showed her with up to 36 percent of the vote.

But now Le Pen risks seeing years of progress undone, observers say.

Analysts say Le Pen will be forced to play the victim card to retain the support of her voters.

The RN is the largest single party in parliament and could complicate life for Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who does not have a majority in the lower house.

(C.Young--TAG)