Marine Le Pen found guilty in EU funding embezzlement case

I've already seen cryptofascist party leaders elsewhere cry out about "authoritarian and anti-democratic elimination of opponents" over this. So much projection and doublespeak.

Prosecutors last year said Le Pen's punishment should be not just a €300,000 (£250,000) fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years.

Crucially, he said the ineligibility should kick in straightaway, and not be suspended pending appeal.

The judge has not yet said what the sentence will be.

Judges could also decide not to impose automatic ineligibility with her conviction, which would leave her free to stand in 2027 during an appeals process.

The court could also give her a shorter term of automatic ineligibility - say one year - making it possible for her to run.

During the trial last year, Le Pen denied she had committed "the slightest irregularity".

There's a long tradition of corrupt/grifter types who race into office with the law on their tail. This should be another sign that immunity needs to be removed from higher offices. I'm beyond sick of seeing literal villains run and even win elections. Every such villain is using the now mainstream PR strategy of claiming to be the oppressed victim persecuted by the ["deep"] state, the scrappy underdog. I get that it's popular to be "anti-system", but none of them truly are that.