Le Pen calls embezzlement conviction a 'witch hunt'

France's far-right National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen has called a court ruling that bans her from running for office a "witch hunt".

"I won't give up," she told thousands of flag-waving supporters in Place Vauban, close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Sunday.

On Monday she was found guilty of helping to embezzle €2.9m (£2.5m) of EU funds between 2004 and 2016 for use by her party. Le Pen has been banned for running for five years, and is appealing the ruling.

At the rally on Sunday she claimed it was a "political decision", adding: "We are not asking to be above the law, but to not be below the law."

Jordan Bardella, RN's president, told the rally on Sunday that the court ruling was "a direct attack on democracy and a wound to millions of patriotic French people".

He said he did not want to "discredit all judges" but claimed that the decision against Le Pen was aimed at "eliminating her from the presidential race" in 2027.

In reply, Gabriel Attal, the head of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party, responded by saying "you steal, you pay".

Attal also denounced "unprecedented interference" in France's affairs, pointing to support for Le Pen from several right-wing leaders, including Italian leader Giorgia Meloni and Hungary's Viktor Orban.

US President Donald Trump called her conviction a "very big deal".

On Sunday, Le Pen appeared via video-link at a congress of Italy's right-wing Lega party, and compared her situation to US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our fight will be like yours - a peaceful fight, a democratic fight." She said.

"We will take inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr who defended civil rights. Well, today it is the civil rights of the French that are being called into question."

A poll by BFMTV after Monday's ruling showed that 57% of people in France believe that justice was served in the Le Pen case without bias.

The Paris Court of Appeal said on Tuesday it should be able to provide a decision on the case by the summer of 2026 - several months before the 2027 presidential election.

Le Pen was gearing up to run for the presidency for a fourth time and had a good chance of winning.

On top of the five year ban on running for public office, she was also handed a €100,000 (£82,635) fine and four-year prison sentence, of which two years will be suspended.

This will not apply until the appeals process is exhausted, which could take several years.

RN spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli said that although the party would fight to have Le Pen as candidate, its 29-year-old president, Bardella, was "the most naturally legitimate" alternative.

Bardella has steered clear of being drawn into the discussion at this stage, refusing to say whether he was National Rally's "plan B" and saying after the ruling that the French should be "outraged" by the sentence.

However, a poll published a day before Le Pen was sentenced showed that around 60% of RN voters would back Bardella over Le Pen at the presidential election if he were to run.

Macron is not entitled to stand for another term at the next presidential election.