Marine Le Pen found guilty, but court clears way for presidential run | BBC News — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00We begin with breaking news from France,
2. 0:01and we've just had the judgment on
3. 0:03Marine Le Pen in her appeal. And the
4. 0:08Paris Court of Appeal has upheld the
5. 0:09conviction of the far-right leader for
6. 0:11misusing public funds. Let's go straight
7. 0:13to the French capital and speak to our
8. 0:16Paris correspondent, Hugh Schofield.
9. 0:18Hugh, tell us more about the judgment.
10. 0:21>> Well, the the conviction was no
11. 0:23surprise. She has been found guilty. The
12. 0:26judge read out the reasons why she
13. 0:28thought this was a particularly serious
14. 0:30offense and why therefore she and the
15. 0:33other co-defendants should be found
16. 0:34guilty. She was then found guilty, but
17. 0:37the key thing is not the conviction,
18. 0:38it's the sentence. And then the sentence
19. 0:40was read out about Marine Le Pen. And as
20. 0:43as I understand it now, and we're really
21. 0:45talking hot off the press 5 minutes ago,
22. 0:47technically she can run, but will she
23. 0:50for the presidency next year? I'll
24. 0:52explain that. Technically she can run
25. 0:54because, as I understand it, the bar on
26. 0:56ineligibility,
27. 0:58which was imposed by the earlier court
28. 1:00for this crime of embezzling European
29. 1:03funds, was originally 5 years, which
30. 1:05meant she couldn't run next year. That's
31. 1:06been reduced to 45 months, 30 of which
32. 1:10are suspended, so 15 months. The 15
33. 1:14months have already passed since that
34. 1:16judgment, so technically she is free to
35. 1:19run for the presidency now. But, and
36. 1:22here's the big complication, and I don't
37. 1:23know how it's going to play out in the
38. 1:24next few hours, but
39. 1:27the judge has also said she must serve a
40. 1:29time in prison. It won't be in prison,
41. 1:31it'll be home prison with an electronic
42. 1:34tag. That sentence is 1 year.
43. 1:37And that technically kicks in now, will
44. 1:39kick kick will would run through
45. 1:42the campaign. And Marine Le Pen herself
46. 1:44has said that she will not run in the
47. 1:46circumstances where she is prevented
48. 1:48from conducting a normal campaign,
49. 1:50walking about, going to meetings, etc.
50. 1:53Because she has an electronic tag, and
51. 1:55has to report home every day. So,
52. 1:57technically she can run,
53. 1:59but she can't run because she set
54. 2:01herself this condition that she can only
55. 2:03run if she's completely free in her
56. 2:04actions. So, I think what we're going to
57. 2:06have to do now is wait. Wait for Marine
58. 2:09Le Pen, Jordan Bardella to have some
59. 2:11kind of crisis meeting and see what they
60. 2:13say. My deep gut feeling is that she
61. 2:16will say, "I can't do it if this is the
62. 2:18condition. I can't campaign with an
63. 2:20electronic tag. It's it's a hindrance.
64. 2:23It's a humiliation and I can't do it.
65. 2:25Therefore, it will be Jordan Bardella,
66. 2:26her young protégé, who takes over." But
67. 2:28I don't know that and it may be that
68. 2:30this surprise judgment, which is a a
69. 2:32lesser, it's more lenient than the
70. 2:34original judgment, is causing some cause
71. 2:36to rethink plans in in party HQ. I don't
72. 2:39know. As things stand though, she's she
73. 2:43can run, but her own conditions for
74. 2:45running have not been met, so she won't
75. 2:47run. But will that change in the next
76. 2:49few hours?
77. 2:50>> We shall see. Hugh, for the moment,
78. 2:52thank you very much. Hugh Schofield in
79. 2:53Paris. Well, our reporter Antoine Denier
80. 2:55is here. That's the conundrum, isn't it?
81. 2:58She'd said before, "If I have to wear a
82. 2:59tag, I won't run."
83. 3:01>> Exactly. She She repeated it. "How do I
84. 3:04go to a market and speak to French
85. 3:05people with a with a tag on my ankle?
86. 3:07How do I do my own rallies and
87. 3:10basically, yeah, do my campaign?" So, it
88. 3:12is a very, very interesting ruling
89. 3:14because essentially what it does is
90. 3:16leave it to her own judgment and leave
91. 3:18it to party HQ to decide, especially
92. 3:20when we've seen months when that ruling
93. 3:23happened, the first one, and we've seen
94. 3:26Marine Le Pen being guilty. Every
95. 3:28politician pretty much in France started
96. 3:31to say, "We need to beat Marine Le Pen
97. 3:33in the ballots, not in court." Which
98. 3:35almost led to threats from uh towards
99. 3:38the judges. So, this ruling from the
100. 3:41Court of Appeal gives us that feeling
101. 3:44that they're now leaving it to Marine Le
102. 3:46Pen's own judgment, own compass to say,
103. 3:49"Do I run as someone who is guilty of
104. 3:52embezzlement because
105. 3:54whatever whatever the court has decided
106. 3:56today that the main word here is that
107. 3:59she is still found guilty of misusing
108. 4:01public funds. Will that cost her in
109. 4:04terms of debates in terms of
110. 4:07being attacked by other candidates? Will
111. 4:09that be enough for her to say look this
112. 4:11is my chance still because Emmanuel
113. 4:13Macron is not in the ballot?
114. 4:15It's going to be very interesting. She's
115. 4:17due to speak on the French broadcaster
116. 4:20TF1 in the main flagship program
117. 4:23at 8:00 p.m. local time tonight where
118. 4:25she
119. 4:26essentially would announce her decision.
120. 4:29We've seen Jordan Bardella her
121. 4:30lieutenant as you mentioned her protege
122. 4:33this 30-year-old man who is seen as the
123. 4:36prime minister of Marine Le Pen if she
124. 4:38was able to run or the potential
125. 4:39president or at least candidate to to
126. 4:42run in in her in her place. So we're
127. 4:44going to see what the decision is. He's
128. 4:46been following this this result from
129. 4:48party HQ. He didn't make a statement
130. 4:51when he arrived at party HQ this morning
131. 4:54but obviously this is today the moment
132. 4:56that the presidential campaign begins
133. 4:58for sure because
134. 5:00we're going to see who is going to be on
135. 5:01the on the ballot for for the
136. 5:03Rassemblement National.
137. 5:04>> She's got a few hours to think it
138. 5:05through. Pierre-Antoine Donnet for the
139. 5:07moment thank you very much.