Marine Le Pen on Sunday, April 6th vowed to pursue her presidential ambitions after she was found guilty of embezzlement and banned from standing for office, telling a rally her party is the target of a witch hunt.
Polls have made the figurehead of the French right-wing National Rally (RN) party the frontrunner ahead of a presidential election in two years and the court sentence has stunned France’s political establishment.
Le Pen spoke at a rally in central Paris to condemn the sentences against her and other RN officials, stating that the “existence of France is at stake.”
“I won’t give up,” Le Pen told followers in a Paris square. She said a “witch hunt” was behind the conviction. “It is not a judicial decision, it is a political decision,” she told supporters waving French flags and chanting “Marine! Marine!”
Jordan Bardella, RN chief, said the party did not want to discredit all judges but the conviction was “a direct attack on democracy and a wound to millions of patriotic French people.”
