Patriots party leaders back Le Pen following ban 

Leaders from Marine Le Pen’s Patriots party across EU countries rallied to her support after the French court ruling on Monday found her guilty of misappropriation of public funds and barred her from running for the next presidential elections in France.

No joint statement has been issued by Patriots.eu, the European political party to which Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National is affiliated. But leaders from Patriot’s parties have expressed solidarity with the RN’s founder.

“Je suis Marine,” (I am Marine), wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on X.

“I back Marine,” was the message in French of Italy’s League leader Matteo Salvini, posted on a picture with the French politician.

The League’s delegation in the European Parliament considered the ruling as “political and disproportionate”, and “the greatest judicial scandal of the Fifth [French] Republic”. “Today it is not Marine Le Pen or the Rassemblement National being hit, but democracy,” read a note from the Italian party.

“I am shocked by the incredible tough verdict against Marine Le Pen,” wrote the Dutch nationalist leader Geert Wilders, founder and president of PVV, adding that he is confident she “will win the appeal and become President of France”.

Statements of solidarity and accusations towards the French judiciary also arrived from Belgium and Greece.

“When nationalist politicians gain popularity, the system seeks other, non-democratic ways to silence them,” Tom Van Grieken, president of Flemish sovereigntist party Vlaams Belang, wrote on X.

“Today we are all with Marine Le Pen. The instrumentalisation of Justice for political expediency undermines democracy itself,” read a post from Afroditi Latinopoulou, a Greek member of the European Parliament and founder of ultranationalist party The Voice of Reason.