Marine Le Pen verdict fuels debate that Europe’s ‘rule of law’ is throttling the ‘will of the people’

Rareș Mustață

CNN  —  This week, a French court found far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling millions of euros of European Union funds and banned her from running for political office for five years – knocking the frontrunner out of the 2027 presidential race and enraging her supporters. Coming so swiftly after Romania canceled the first-round election victory of a far-right candidate , Le Pen’s verdict has deepened a transatlantic debate about whether courts risk disenfranchising voters by