Every European party has taken a stance on National Rally leader Marine Le Pen’s four-year prison sentence and her ban from the 2027 French presidential election—despite her leading the polls—except the largest party controlling all EU institutions: Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP).
When asked about their stance, the EPP and nearly all of its national delegations simply refused to comment, and a party spokesman confirmed that there is no official position.
No doubt the EPP leadership would gladly join its coalition partners on the Left—the socialists S&D, the liberal Renew, and the Greens—to support the French court’s decision against the conservative leader. That is, were it not for a few national delegations who stand on the other side, including the French Les Républicains (LR), who arguably know better what’s going on in the country than the rest of the party.
“Is France still a democracy?” LR leader Eric Ciotti posted on X after the guilty sentence. “The democratic destiny of our nation has been confiscated by an unworthy judicial cabal. The favorite candidate in the presidential election was prevented from running,” he went on.
This is not a simple malfunction, it is a system of power capture that systematically excludes any candidate too far to the right who is capable of winning.
The Republicans’ European Parliamentary leader (and EPP Vice-Chair), François-Xavier Bellamy, struck a very similar tone, saying that “this date will remain a very dark day for French democracy” and that banning a leading candidate from the election without the chance to appeal is an “unprecedented event [that] will leave deep scars.”
The EPP’s Slovene member party, SDS, also came out in strong support for Le Pen—unsurprising, given how much lawfare it also had endured at the hands of Slovenia’s progressive government (and on the instructions of the EU Commission).
“Weaponizing the judiciary against political rivals … not only casts a bad light on the rule of law, but directly undermines the very essence of democracy,” former Slovene PM and SDS leader Janez Janša said, drawing parallels with similar lawfare cases in Slovenia, Italy, Poland, and Romania. “Quo vadis, EU?”
At least among the conservative groups—Patriots, ECR, and ESN—there is unity about condemning the unprecedented verdict. The latest to join the major leaders in support for Le Pen was Italian PM Giorgia Meloni (FdI/ECR), who said, “No one who cares about democracy can rejoice in a sentence that affects the leader of a large party and takes away representation from millions of citizens.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the conservative groups also found a few unusual allies from among Europe’s leading far-left figures. Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, for instance, criticized the “mind-boggling hypocrisy” of the EU liberals who condemn the imprisonment of the Turkish opposition candidate, yet “rejoice” when the same is done in France.
