MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro sides with convicted French far-right leader Marine LePen

It is up to the French people to decide who will be the next president in 2027, Bolsonaro argued

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that France's far-right leader Marine LePen's conviction and five-year disenfranchisement for embezzling public funds was politically motivated after she led all surveys for the 2027 presidential elections.

“I hope and hope that Ms. LePen overcomes this persecution and can run in the next presidential elections” in 2027, Bolsonaro wrote on X. “Long live freedom! Long live France! Long live Brazil!” added the retired Army captain -himself already disenfranchised in his country- as he insisted that “the left in France, as in Brazil, opts for the path of 'Lawfare', of judicial activism, to seek elections without opposition.” He is not able to run until 2030 after questioning Brazil's electronic voting system.

“It is up to the people to decide who will be the next president of France in 2027,” Bolsonaro also argued.

He is also facing coup d'état attempt charges for the Jan. 8, 2023, riots in Brasilia when his followers stormed into the headquarters of the three branches of government, which the prosecution claims was the result of a conspiracy planned after losing the 2022 elections to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In the meantime, Bolsonaro is organizing an event in São Paulo to advocate for amnesty for those convicted in the same case, as his Liberal Party works to advance a bill in Congress to this end. In Lula's view, these actions constitute an admission of guilt.

LePen, the leader of France's far-right National Rally (RN) party, was convicted on Monday for embezzling public funds during her time as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) between 2004 and 2016. She was sentenced to a two-year prison term (to be served under house arrest) and a five-year political ban.

The case involved the misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants who worked for the RN (formerly her late father's National Front) rather than the European Parliament. LePen and some 20 other party members were ordered to repay € 3.2 million to the EU, in addition to €1.1 million already paid.

Despite her efforts to distance the party’s image from Jean-Marie LePen’s radical legacy, this conviction threatens her political career, which includes runner-up finishes in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections against Emmanuel Macron.

In addition to Bolsonaro, Italy’s Matteo Salvini and US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chief Elon Musk have rallied behind LePen, who dubbed her conviction “a political earthquake,” typical of “authoritarian regimes.”