Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed strong opposition to the conviction of Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, after she was found guilty of creating fake jobs at the European Parliament. Meloni, the head of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, criticized the ruling, stating that it was a move that disenfranchised millions of citizens and undermined democracy.
“I don’t know the merits of the accusations against Marine Le Pen, or the reasons for such a strong decision,” Meloni said in an interview with Il Messaggero. “But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice at a sentence that targets the leader of a major party and deprives millions of citizens of representation.”
Le Pen, a prominent eurosceptic and far-right figure, was convicted of fraud for setting up fake jobs for her party’s employees in the European Parliament. She was handed a five-year ban from running for office, which significantly hampers her aspirations to run for the French presidency in 2027. In addition to the electoral ban, Le Pen was also sentenced to four years in prison, though half of that sentence was suspended and the remainder will be served under electronic surveillance.
Le Pen has vowed to appeal the sentence, a move that her supporters believe is politically motivated. Her deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, leader of the League party, expressed similar outrage, calling the decision a “declaration of war by Brussels.” Salvini, a close ally of Le Pen, decried the ruling as part of a broader effort by EU elites to exclude eurosceptic politicians from political life. “We don’t let ourselves be intimidated, we don’t stop,” Salvini said, calling for continued resistance against European Union authorities, especially targeting EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron.
This political clash reflects growing tensions within the European Union, particularly between eurosceptic leaders and EU institutions, as populist movements continue to gain traction across Europe.
