#lepen

0:08that's a big deal that's a very big deal

0:13the United States has taken Le Pin's

0:15conviction head on turning it into a

0:19global debate on democracy and political

0:22persecution

0:25the courtroom verdict in Paris has sent

0:28shock waves through France's political

0:31landscape barring farright leader Marine

0:35Le Pen from running for office until

0:382027

0:42the ruling which found Le Pen and two

0:45dozen members of her national rally RN

0:49party guilty of embezzling European

0:52Union funds has ignited a firestorm of

0:57accusations with Le Pen's allies

0:59branding it a judicial coup against

1:05democracy the judge now under police

1:07protection following death threats

1:11delivered a 5-year ban that unless

1:13overturned on appeal will keep her out

1:17of the next presidential

1:20race the witch hunt against Meen Le Pen

1:24is another example of European leftists

1:26using lawfare to silence free speech and

1:30censor their political opponent this

1:32time going so far as to put that

1:34opponent in prison she suffered losses

1:37but kept on going and now just before

1:41what would be a big victory they get her

1:44on a minor charge that she probably knew

1:47nothing

1:48about sounds like a bookkeeping error to

1:51me Trump said in his post

1:57that's a big deal that's a very big deal

2:00i I know all about it and a lot of

2:02people thought she wasn't going to be

2:04convicted of anything and I don't know

2:05if it it means conviction but she was

2:07banned for running for 5 years and she's

2:09the leading candidate that sounds like

2:11this

2:12country that sounds very much like this

2:15country once a frontr runner for

2:18France's 2027 presidential contest Le

2:21Pen now faces an uncertain political

2:24future her allies have declared the

2:27nation's justice system an instrument of

2:30political repression further deepening

2:33divisions

2:37french Prime Minister Francois Beeru

2:40sought to quell the backlash telling

2:43lawmakers on Tuesday that he

2:46unconditionally supported the

2:47judiciary's decision emphasizing that

2:51the ruling was based on legal merit

2:54rather than political

2:57bias the controversy has also spilled

3:00into the international arena with Trump

3:02aligned figures rallying behind Le Pen

3:06elon Musk head of DOGE echoed Trump's

3:10outrage sharing his post with the call

3:13to free Le

3:17Pen us Vice President J d vance also

3:21weighed in criticizing the verdict in an

3:25interview with Newsmax he called Le

3:27Pin's conviction a very minor offense

3:30and slammed the ban on her candidacy as

3:33undemocratic

3:35they're trying to throw her in prison

3:37and throw her off the ballot vance said

3:40"Look that's not

3:44democracy." Earlier this year JD Vance

3:47warned about threats to democracy in

3:49Europe during the MSC 2025 conference

3:53his concerns over political censorship

3:55and democratic fragility now resonate

3:59amid the Le Pen controversy

4:02free speech I fear is in retreat and in

4:06the interest of comedy my friends but

4:08also in the interest of truth but if

4:10your democracy can be destroyed with a

4:13few hundred,000 of digital advertising

4:15from a foreign country then it wasn't

4:18very strong to begin with

4:21[Applause]

4:21[Music]

4:24now the good news is that I happen to

4:26think your democracies are substantially

4:28less brittle than many people apparently

4:31fear and I believe deeply that there is

4:35no security if you are afraid of the

4:38voices the opinions and the conscience

4:41that guide your very own people europe

4:44faces many challenges but the crisis

4:47this continent faces right now the

4:49crisis I believe we all face together is

4:53one of our own

4:55making trump's comparison of Le Pen's

4:58legal troubles to his own is unlikely to

5:01go unnoticed

5:03the US president who faced multiple

5:05criminal indictments including charges

5:08related to hush money payments efforts

5:11to overturn the 2020 election and

5:14retention of classified documents has

5:17repeatedly cast his prosecutions as

5:19politically motivated

5:23with federal charges against him dropped

5:26following his 2024 election victory

5:29Trump is now leveraging Le Pen's case to

5:33reinforce his claims of lawfare against

5:35right-wing leaders further inflaming

5:38political tensions in France and beyond

5:41[Music]

5:43the uproar has extended beyond the US

5:45and France as Hungary's prime minister

5:49Victor Orban also joined the outcry

5:52tagging Le Pen in a social media post

5:55Orban declared "Jasi marine I am

6:00Marine." Italy's vice premere Matteo

6:04Salvini also voiced solidarity

6:08condemning the ruling against Le Pen

6:12i wrote to her yesterday sent all my

6:15solidarity and my human friendship even

6:17before the political one to Meereen who

6:20does not give up who does not give up

6:22because it cannot be a sentence the one

6:24knocking out the majority of the French

6:26people

6:28with appeals pending and a political

6:30firestorm raging France's path to 2027

6:35is no longer just about elections it's a

6:38battleground where courts politicians

6:41and foreign leaders are all fighting to

6:44shape the country's

6:46[Music]

6:54[Music]

6:57future heat heat

7:01[Music]

7:24[Music]