US President Donald Trump and right-wing leaders in Europe have railed against a court’s decision to ban French hard-right leader Marine Le Pen from running for the presidency. 

Le Pen on Monday was convicted of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament, taking advantage of expenses to employ assistants who were actually working for her party in France.

The matriarch of the hard-right National Rally (RN) party was barred from running for office for five years and given a four-year prison sentence, although she will not go to jail as half of it was suspended and the rest will be served with an electronic tag.

Twenty-four people, including Le Pen, were convicted – all of them RN party officials or assistants.

RN President Jordan Bardella declared: ‘Everything will be done to prevent us from coming to power,’ in an interview with French media.

‘Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly condemned: It was French democracy that was killed.’

He went on to blast the ‘tyranny of the judges’ and declared the RN and its supporters would hold a peaceful protest this weekend – though he also condemned the ‘inadmissible… very personal attacks against the judges’ after reports they had received death threats.

Le Pen has already pledged to fight the court-imposed prohibition that appeared to exclude her goal of seeking and potentially winning the French presidency in 2027, with her lawyer set to request the appeal take place before those elections. 

Trump said that the Le Pen conviction was a ‘very important matter’ and drew parallels with his own legal battles in the US that blighted his presidential campaign. 

Speaking at the White House Yesterday, the US President said: ‘[Le Pen] was banned for five years and she was the leading candidate.

‘That sounds like this country, that sounds very much like this country.’

Jordan Bardella, president of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National – RN) political party, arrives at the RN party headquarters, a day after French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement of EU funds and barred from running for office for five years, in Paris, France, April 1, 2025

President of Rassemblement National parliamentary group Marine Le Pen (L) speaks to French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) RN party’s President and lead MEP Jordan Bardella

The veteran far-right politician was convicted of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament to channel funds to her party to employ people in France on March 31, 2025

Trump said that the Le Pen conviction was a ‘very important matter’ and drew parallels with his own legal battles in the US that blighted his presidential campaign

US presidential adviser Elon Musk also slammed the decision, declaring on Monday: ‘When the radical left can’t win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents. This is their standard playbook throughout the world.’

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the ruling against Le Pen disenfranchised millions of voters in France and the EU. 

‘I don’t know the merits of the accusations against Marine Le Pen, or the reasons for such a strong decision,’ Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, told Il Messaggero.

‘But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice at a sentence that targets the leader of a major party and deprives millions of citizens of representation.’

Meloni’s deputy prime minister, League leader Matteo Salvini, had on Monday called the sentence a ‘declaration of war by Brussels’.

‘In Paris they condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to exclude her from political life. A bad film that we are also seeing in other countries like Romania,’ wrote Salvini on social media.

He called it a ‘declaration of war by Brussels, at a time when the war instincts of Von der Leyen and Macron are frightening. We don’t let ourselves be intimidated, we don’t stop: full speed ahead my friend!’

The eurosceptic Salvini often rails against EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron.

His League is part of the same European Parliament bloc as Le Pen’s party, Patriots for Europe, and the two leaders are closely allied.

Elsewhere, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted in French ‘Je suis Marine’ (‘I am Marine’) – a play on a social media campaign ‘Je suis Charlie’ when people showed solidarity with the victims of the terror attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. 

Russia also waded in, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters: ‘More and more European capitals are going down the path of trampling over democratic norms. 

‘Of course, we do not want to interfere in France’s internal affairs, we have never done so… But in general, our observations of European capitals show that they are not at all reluctant to go beyond democracy during the political process.’ 

In the face of widespread criticism from Trump and European right wing leaders, one of France’s top two public prosecutors denied that there was a political element to Monday’s decision.

‘Justice is not political, this is not a political decision but a legal one, delivered by three independent, impartial judges,’ Remy Heitz told RTL radio station.

But anti-corruption judge Benedicte de Perthuis, who presided over the case, was placed under armed guard after she received death threats.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her deputy Matteo Salvini said the ruling against Le Pen disenfranchised millions of voters in France and the EU

Several right-wing politicians came out in support of Le Pen

Le Pen and more than 20 other party officials were on Monday found guilty of stealing millions of pounds worth of tax payers’ money from the European taxpayer

President of the French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) and MEP Jordan Bardella (L) and President of the parliamentary group of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, Marine Le Pen

The judge said in closing comments after delivering the verdict: ‘The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted … was a candidate in the presidential election.’

In the wake of her ruling, Le Pen accused Judge De Perthuis of ‘wanting to prevent me from running and being elected in the presidential election,’ and ‘violating the law’.

But in a statement released on Monday, Jacques Boulard, the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal, called for ‘respect for the judicial system’.

Judge Boulard deplored ‘numerous comments but also, particularly on social media, personal attacks against the three judges who make up the collegial body.’

He expressed his ‘deep concern’ and said that in a democratic state governed by the rule of law, criticism of a court decision can under no circumstances be expressed through threats against judges.’

France’s Justice Minister, Gérald Darmanin, also said the threats were ‘worrying for the independence of the judicial authority.’