They warn of disproportionate restrictions on campaign accounts and urge Meta to ensure fair treatment of candidates.

On Wednesday, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern about restrictions on political freedom of expression occurring in Brazil as a result of the way the technology company Meta is handling its social media platforms during Brazil’s presidential elections.

RELATED:

Brazilian Court Gives Meta 24 Hours to Prove Equal Treatment of Presidential Campaigns

“Reports of restrictions on legitimate political expression on Meta platforms during Brazil’s elections raise concerns for freedom of expression, association, political participation and equal treatment of political viewpoints, UN experts said.

“Online platforms are key actors in democratic debate. Preventing people from speaking or reaching audiences without explanation affects who is heard,” they added.

This assessment is based on findings by international election observers who have reported incidents of political discrimination through electronic media.

🇧🇷 | META ATACA DE NUEVO A LULA

Empleados de Meta admitieron afecciones voluntarias a las cuentas de Lula, mientras favorecían la visibilidad de Flavio Bolsonaro.

👉🏻 Un aporte oportuno para analizar las elecciones en la nueva arena híbrida:https://t.co/oIAXraHGud pic.twitter.com/kHjb9CxlUM

— Adrián Ramírez (@_adrianramirez_) October 17, 2026

The text reads, “META TARGETS LULA AGAIN. Meta employees admitted to intentionally interfering with Lula’s accounts, while boosting the visibility of Flavio Bolsonaro.”

Among those incidents, they highlighted the temporary interruptions of the campaign account of President Lula da Silva, the candidate of the Workers’ Party who is competing against U.S.-backed far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in the runoff scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 25.

Observers have also recorded differences in audience engagement, user feeds, view counts and reach; restrictions on that campaign’s Instagram posts; and differences between the main political parties in AI image generation, WhatsApp channel search results, candidates’ stories and the distribution of political content potentially benefiting Bolsonaro’s campaign.

“Monitoring reports show thousands of accounts and posts have faced suspensions, reduced visibility and sharing limits, including journalists, human rights defenders, civil society actors and content creators,” the UN experts said.

“Information, including from Meta employees, suggests that accounts linked to one side of the presidential race were disproportionately curtailed.”

3 days after Meta was ordered to stop manipulating algorithms to favor Flavio Bolsonaro in the presidential election, two orgs have submitted evidence to Brazil's Superior Electoral Court that the corporation is still violating national election laws. https://t.co/GzJIA8gSjL

— BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) October 19, 2026

Last week, due to this discriminatory treatment, the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta to apply the same rules to both candidates until the runoff, prohibiting unequal restrictions on campaign reach, recommendations, and search results.

“Losing reach can mean losing a voice in public debate and the ability to mobilise communities. Algorithms, AI systems and content-moderation decisions must not become invisible arbiters of political discussion. Where political expression appears disproportionately restricted, platforms must explain why, address unequal impacts and ensure effective remedies,” the UN experts warned.

“The responsibility to respect human rights requires technology companies to identify, prevent and address adverse impacts, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, including in platform governance and content moderation,” they added.

A Meta AI chatbot tells grad student Laura Morgado why Meta is backing Bolsonaro. “Trump & the Bolsonaros are the global political shield for big tech companies against the advance of European regulation & the Latin American left." Another technical glitch?https://t.co/NyVrTkP07d

— BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) October 16, 2026

“During elections, delayed remedies may have irreversible consequences. Freedom of expression and information integrity must therefore go hand in hand. Measures against disinformation must not arbitrarily restrict legitimate political expression,” the UN experts stressed, and urged Meta to assess whether its moderation, recommendation, and AI systems disproportionately restricted one side of Brazil’s electoral debate.

“Digital platforms must not become unaccountable gatekeepers of political debate, nor should their systems be susceptible to undue influence by political actors. Democracy and free and fair elections depend on independent and consistent platforms and an open, pluralistic environment where people can access information, scrutinise those seeking power, exchange views and organise without arbitrary interference,” the experts said.

The statement was signed by figures including Leopoldo Maldonado, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; and Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

teleSUR/ JF Sources: UNHRC – EFE

A new Quaest poll shows the far-right senator with 45% of voter support and the progressive president with 44%.

On Wednesday, polling firm Quaest revealed that Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro’s lead over President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in voting intentions for Brazil’s presidential runoff had narrowed from 2 points last week to just 1 point.

RELATED:

Lula Offers to Lift Bank Secrecy as Bolsonaro’s Wealth Faces Scrutiny

If the election were held today, the far-right candidate, who received the most votes in the first round, would receive 45% of the vote, while the progressive president would garner 44%, indicating that the two remain statistically tied because the poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

In the poll conducted last week by the same firm, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) had 46% of voter support, a decline of 1 point, while Lula, who is seeking reelection and a fourth nonconsecutive term, had 44%, unchanged from the previous survey.

The new poll, released just four days before the runoff scheduled for Oct. 25, confirmed that the presidential election ranks among Brazil’s most polarized, with the country still divided between the progressivism led by Lula and the far-right politics of the Bolsonaro clan.

Quaest: Lula amplia vantagem entre beneficiários do Bolsa Família. O candidato à reeleição aumentou de 60% para 62%. Ao mesmo tempo, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) caiu de 31% para 27%.

➡️ #GloboNewsRadar – de segunda a sexta, às 8h30, na #GloboNews. Assista na TV e no Globoplay pic.twitter.com/43AKlyZnCE

— GloboNews (@GloboNews) October 21, 2026

The text reads, “Quaest: Lula expands his lead among Bolsa Família beneficiaries. The candidate seeking reelection rose from 60% to 62%. At the same time, Flavio Bolsonaro (PL) fell from 31% to 27%.”

According to Quaest, which interviewed 2,154 voters between Saturday and Tuesday, the percentage of undecided voters rose from 1% to 2% over the past week, while the percentage of those intending to cast blank ballots or invalidate their votes remained at 9%.

The new poll was conducted after the candidates’ first televised debate on Oct. 18 and after the Brazilian president announced new measures. In addition to the reduction of the workweek from 44 to 40 hours, with two days off and no reduction in pay, Lula announced in recent days a measure to forgive microentrepreneurs’ debts and a bill to provide free bus transportation on weekends.

Bolsonaro received the most votes in the first round of the presidential election, with 47.03%, while Lula finished second with 45.16%, leaving a gap of less than 2 percentage points between them.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

He linked protests in France to immigration policy and reiterates warnings to European leaders.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump declined to express his electoral support for Marine Le Pen, the French far-right candidate for the 2027 presidential election.

RELATED:

France Reports 855 Arrests in Paris After Protests

“Well, I don’t know her. I’ve never met her personally. But I thought they treated her badly,” he responded when asked in the Oval Office about a possible endorsement of the National Rally (RN) candidate.

The U.S. president criticized Le Pen’s conviction for embezzling European public funds, which resulted in an electoral ban that was later reduced following an appeal, allowing her to regain the possibility of running for president.

“I would consider that political weaponization. When they did what they did, I thought that, you know, she was leading. But after this, she’s definitely the conservative voice,” Trump said and credited his electoral endorsements with contributing to the rightward shift in several Latin American countries, including Abelardo de la Espriella’s victory in Colombia.

Marine Le Pen would win any runoff in France’s 2027 presidential race, poll finds pic.twitter.com/bMGRxRDRbo

— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) October 20, 2026

The Republican leader again linked the protests in France to immigration policy and accused the French government of encouraging immigration. He said he had conveyed his warnings to French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he said he had a good relationship.

“I said, if you don’t stop the immigration problem, you’re not going to have a country left. And I said it to Germany, and I said it to the United Kingdom,” Trump said.

On Oct. 17, thousands of French people took to the streets to protest inflation, the loss of purchasing power and support for U.S.-promoted wars. The protests led to violent clashes with police and property damage in several cities.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

New probe examines financial transactions, ties to lawyer Tomaz and payments for the senator’s trips to Europe.

On Sunday, newspapers Estadao and Folha revealed for the first time that the Brazilian Federal Police had sent a new investigation to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to examine suspicions of money laundering involving presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro and lawyer Willer Tomaz.

RELATED:

Lula da Silva Beats Flavio Bolsonaro in Debate Ahead of Runoff

The investigation seeks to clarify the relationship between them and possible irregularities in financial transactions detected during another probe related to the movement of capital through betting activities.

The journalistic revelation came hours before a televised presidential debate in which Workers’ Party leader Lula da Silva challenged the far-right senator to authorize Brazilian authorities to examine his bank accounts and phone so the Brazilian people could learn the origins of his personal wealth and his family’s fortune. Flavio Bolsonaro refused to do so.

On Oct. 8, the case file for the new investigation arrived at the Supreme Court and was assigned by lottery to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Previously, he oversaw the case that ended with a 27-year prison sentence for coup plotting against former President Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio’s father.

Brazil’s election offers a simple choice:
Governance from Brasilia or from Washington.https://t.co/TORegJQvQK

— BRASILWIRE (@BRASILWIRE) September 21, 2026

De Moraes was also the justice responsible for the proceedings in which Eduardo Bolsonaro, the far-right presidential candidate’s brother, was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to coerce judges and orchestrate U.S. sanctions against Brazil to obstruct the case against his father.

According to investigators, an analysis of data extracted from digital files linked to lawyer Willer Tomaz revealed records indicating a close relationship between him and Flavio. Items found in the material examined by the Federal Police included references to meetings, parties and gatherings, as well as the lawmaker’s personal documents.

The investigation also indicates that a bank account linked to Willer Tomaz recorded transactions totaling about 130 million reais between March and May 2025. Investigators seek to establish the origin and destination of these funds, as well as verify possible connections to companies and financial operations related to the betting sector.

The case also includes information about payments for Flavio’s trips to Europe and an account linked to Alcazar Holding, in which the senator was identified as the “master user.” Both Flavio and Willer deny any wrongdoing and say their relationship is one of “friendship.”

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: Estadao – Folha – La Jornada

Nice Mayor Éric Ciotti has called for the government to open up terror investigations into the urban youth riots over the weekend, and to ban far-left militant groups like Antifa.

The post ‘French Intifada’: Mayor Calls For Terror Investigation Into ‘Islamo-Leftist’ Riots, Ban on Antifa Groups appeared first on Breitbart.

Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro confirmed Wednesday that he will attend the Band network debate with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, scheduled for Sunday, October 18, a turnaround that clears the way for the first face-to-face encounter of the campaign.

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Less than 24 hours after announcing that he would not participate in Sunday’s debate on Bandeirantes channel, the senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro backed down and confirmed this Wednesday that he will debate with the Worker’s party candidate, Lula da Silva. The event will take place on October 18 at 8 P.M. local time.

Bolsonaro, who had announced the previous day that he would not attend the program, changed his decision after Lula confirmed his presence to expose the differences between the two government projects and allow voters to compare the proposals of both candidates.

RELATED: Lula’s Digital Campaign Restructures its Communications Leadership in Brazil

In the recording broadcast on social networks, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro presented his turnaround as a calculated provocation. “Lula, how predictable you are, aren’t you? All it took was for me to say I wasn’t going to take part in the Band debate for you, the next minute, to say you were going. And of course I will be at the debate, I just wanted you to confirm it,” he said.

The challenge did not stop there. “I am going to rub the truth in your face and refute you live for millions of Brazilians; I’ll be waiting for you at the Band debate, Lula,” Bolsonaro added.

Seus dias na presidência espalhando mentiras estão contados!

Vou esfregar a verdade na tua cara, Lula! Me aguarde…

PARTIDO LIBERAL – CNPJ 68.581.907/0001-25 – PROPAGANDA ELEITORAL#Debate #Band #FlavioBolsonaro #Vote22 pic.twitter.com/1HtXSieesp

— Flávio Bolsonaro (@FlavioBolsonaro) October 14, 2026

The meeting, organized by the chain Bandeirantes, comes one week from the start scheduled for October 25 and will be the first time in this campaign that both face to face.

Tuesday’s Opposite Stance

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro’s position had been the opposite. After an event of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the senator gave reporters a brief refusal. “I’m not going, it’s not planned to attend that debate on Sunday,” he said, adding that his attendance at the October 23 Globo debate would depend on what his technical team decides.

The turnaround came after Lula confirmed that he would attend the program. For his part, Lula had confirmed his presence the same day, also by video. “I hope my opponent shows up so that the people know the differences between programs and candidacies. I will be there,” he said.

Band kept the event on the calendar despite the initial resistance of the Liberal Party’s candidate and had announced it would leave the absent candidate’s lectern empty throughout the broadcast. With Wednesday’s confirmation, the set will have both contenders.

ELEIÇÕES 2026 | Flávio diz que não vai a debate Band/Estadão e Lula confirma presença. Encontro entre presidenciáveis está agendado para o domingo, dia 18, na sede da emissora do Morumbi.
⁣
🔗 Acompanhe a cobertura completa das eleições em https://t.co/WqM2KrEbmL pic.twitter.com/az5mBZJnNl

— Estadão 🗞️ (@Estadao) October 13, 2026

A Campaign of Cancellations

Neither candidate attended a debate before the first round. Band’s August 23 debate was held without the frontrunners, and those called by a media consortium on September 14 and by Record on September 23 were canceled because no one confirmed attendance.

The October 1 Globo debate also fell through. Lula said on September 30 that he would not attend, and Bolsonaro, who had promised to show up even without his rival, withdrew about two hours before airtime. He blamed what he called “censorship” imposed, in his version, by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), whose justice Estela Aranha had barred the network from keeping the lectern reserved for the president on the set.

According to the Superior Electoral Court, in the first round on October 4 Bolsonaro won 56.1 million votes, or 47.03% of valid votes, and Lula 53.9 million, or 45.16%.

This Sunday’s debate will be the first in which Bolsonaro and Lula of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT) face off, given that none participated in the media clashes before the first round. Another debate is still scheduled for October 23 at Globo, two days before the election, the most influential TV network in the South American country.

With the balloting set for October 25, the results show a competitive contest after a first round in which the difference was also tight. In this scenario, the televised debate scheduled for Sunday represents a new instance for the two aspirants to present their positions to the Brazilian electorate.

As Flávio Bolsonaro promises $38 billion in spending cuts, huge crowds of students take to the streets across Brazil to support Lula and fight for their right to quality education.

---

This Sunday, the fact that Lula brought out the largest crowd to São Paulo’s Paulista Avenue since the Diretas Já movement in the waning days of the U.S.-backed military dictatorship, with estimates of over 1 million, has rightfully occupied a lot of headline space, even in bourgeois media outlets like Globo which notoriously lies about crowd size at leftist marches and protests.

RELATED: Lula Shifts Digital Strategy for Runoff Against Bolsonaro in Brazil

But across Brazil, scores of other campaign marches have brought out huge crowds in the past few days, even in small and mid sized cities, like the conservative city of Uberlândia, which saw 50,000 people come out to show their support for Lula on October 8.

This Sunday I headed to May 13 Park in Recife’s Santo Amaro neighborhood to cover a Lula rally for TeleSur that had been organized by labor unions, the Workers’ Party and social movements like UNE, the National Union of Students (União Nacional dos Estudantes). I had covered Lula’s surprise visit to Recife on September 25 and witnessed the hastily assembled crowd of 80,000 firsthand. Within minutes of arriving at the park, I knew this one was going to be much bigger.

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As I nudged my way through the crowd with my camera equipment, I saw Mayllane Silva, state director of UNE, Brazil’s oldest social movement, which is historically connected to the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB). I asked her why UNE helped organize the rally.

“UNE is out on the streets today because we believe President Lula’s reelection is essential to defending education in our country,” she said. “We can’t leave education in Flávio Bolsonaro’s hands, given that he wants to take our universities out from under the Education Ministry. He wants to tear down education in our country. That’s why UNE isn’t just out on the streets here in Pernambuco, but all across Brazil, to say we want President Lula reelected president so we can defend our education system.”

During the presidency of Flávio Bolsonaro’s father, Jair, the government gutted funding for the federal public university system, leaving many of Brazil’s most prestigious public schools, like the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, on the verge of bankruptcy. The large number of young people present was certainly tied to the fight to protect public education against more of the Bolsonaro family’s market friendly spending cuts, but it was clear that the fight was bigger than that.

A young man named Álvaro Luís told me, “We’re here for all of the minority groups that suffer daily attacks from bolsonarismo. We’re here to fight for those who are unprotected. We are here for the Afro-Brazilians, the working class, for the LGBT community, for women and children, and for a better future for our country.”

When President Lula was first elected in 2002, less than 4% of Brazil’s public university students were Afro-Brazilian, and the vast majority had graduated from prestigious private high schools. The Workers’ Party introduced an affirmative action system that represented an improvement over the U.S. model, because it based university entrance quotas on social class and graduating from public elementary and high schools, as well as on race. Today the share of Afro-Brazilian students matches their share of the population at large, roughly 52%. Millions of low income young people became the first in their families to attend college, and many now worry that under Bolsonaro, university will regress into being an elite privilege.

I approached a young woman who was holding a handmade sign that said, “Fire on the Racists,” and asked why she had come out. “My name is Alana Lima. I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Federal University of Pernambuco, and I was an affirmative action student. I am the daughter of a woman who worked as a kitchen maid and a man who didn’t finish elementary school. I am here today because I know the power that education has to transform people’s lives, and I don’t want this right, which was denied to our ancestors, to be denied to future generations.”

I’ve been covering protests and rallies in Recife for five years now, and this was the largest I had ever seen. Although no size estimate has been made by any credible source at the time of writing this article, I estimate that it was easily twice as large as the crowd of 80,000 that came out to see Lula in person on September 25.

Drone footage shows the crowd simultaneously filling the Princesa Isabel Bridge, which connects the Santo Amaro neighborhood to Antônio Vaz Island, crossing the island, and at the same time occupying the entire Buarque do Macedo Bridge to Recife Antigo Island.

As the march reached its final destination at Marco Zero, the original founding point of Recife, newly elected and reelected lawmakers from the Workers’ Party (PT), the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B) and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) made speeches reminding the crowd of what will be lost if Bolsonaro takes a chainsaw to the national budget like the ones wielded by Milei and Musk.

Drone footage of Buarque do Macedo Bridge

Jones Manoel, who was recently elected federal deputy for PSOL, said, “Federal investment in our state will dry up, and important public assets like the Abreu e Lima refinery could end up privatized. So it’s essential that all of Pernambuco’s working class mobilizes to guarantee President Lula’s reelection.”

Even with the size of the rally, the maracatu drum groups, and the humorous chants against Flávio Bolsonaro that seemed to energize the crowd, there was a palpable underlying tension. Toward the end, I ran into a friend who works at one of the Lula administration’s national ministries. Midway through a cheerful exchange of pleasantries, her smile vanished for a second. “I’m really nervous about this,” she said.

Brazil’s presidential runoff will take place on October 25.

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The Paris Court of Appeal issued its ruling on Tuesday, July 7, 2025, in the National Rally’s parliamentary assistants case. Marine Le Pen’s period of ineligibility for public office was reduced to 45 months on appeal, clearing the way for a fourth presidential bid. However, this legal victory comes with a personal dilemma: the National Rally leader will be required to wear an electronic ankle monitor for one year, a condition she has repeatedly said she would not accept while campaigning.

Convictions Upheld: Guilty of Misappropriating Public Funds

The Paris Court of Appeal upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction in the case involving parliamentary assistants employed by members of the European Parliament. She was found guilty of misappropriating public funds and of aiding and abetting that offense.

The presiding judge repeatedly emphasized the seriousness of the misconduct, noting that it had continued over an eleven-year period spanning three parliamentary terms, despite repeated warnings from the European Parliament about compliance with its rules.

The figures speak for themselves: €2.8 million in misappropriated funds. The court found evidence of “an operating system designed to divert European funds for purposes other than those for which they were intended.” According to the ruling, this systematic scheme was established under the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen and later continued under Marine Le Pen herself.

As part of her sentence, Marine Le Pen received a three-year prison term, including two years suspended and one year to be served under an alternative custodial arrangement. She was also fined €100,000. During the one-year custodial portion of her sentence, she will be required to wear an electronic ankle monitor.

Reduced ineligibility changes the political landscape

This significant reduction marks a major turning point in the National Rally leader’s legal battle.

Her attorney, Rodolphe Bosselut, described the ruling as “a good start” and a “partial victory,” stressing that the reduction of the ineligibility sentence was “an extremely important point.” He also highlighted the presiding judge’s remarks emphasizing voters’ freedom to choose from the full range of candidates.

Electronic monitoring : A major campaign obstacle

During an exclusive interview with BFMTV in February, Marine Le Pen stated unequivocally: “You cannot run a campaign under those conditions.”

She was referring to the mandatory electronic ankle monitor that accompanies a custodial sentence served outside prison. That statement clearly foreshadowed the dilemma she now faces.

The legal situation has become paradoxical. Marine Le Pen is now legally eligible to run for president. However, wearing an electronic ankle monitor for an entire year could severely limit her ability to conduct a normal presidential campaign.

Such a campaign requires constant travel, rallies, media interviews, and visits across the country—activities that could prove difficult to reconcile with electronic monitoring, particularly in the eyes of the public.

Other convictions in the parliamentary assistants case

Marine Le Pen was not the only person convicted.

Fernand Le Rachinel, the first defendant to appear before the court, received a reduced sentence on appeal: two years of suspended imprisonment instead of three, a €15,000 fine, and one year of ineligibility instead of the three years imposed at trial.

Former National Rally Member of the European Parliament Bruno Gollnisch, who was absent from the hearing, was sentenced to three years in prison and one year of ineligibility, a lighter sanction than the three-year ineligibility period imposed by the lower court.

French lawmaker Julien Odoul was also among the defendants whose case was heard on appeal.

Political reactions

Opposition politicians argued that the core issue remained unchanged regardless of who ultimately represented the National Rally in the presidential election.

Boris Vallaud, leader of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, emphasized that respect for the rule of law and the justice system remained the overriding priority.

Green Party lawmaker Benjamin Lucas-Lundy argued that “whether it’s Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella, it changes nothing” regarding the National Rally’s political platform. He reiterated that the party “stole from European taxpayers” and “stole from the French people,” allegations that, he noted, had now been upheld twice by the courts.

Socialist lawmaker Philippe Brun described Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella as “interchangeable candidates,” suggesting that choosing between them would make little political difference for voters.

What comes next

Marine Le Pen left the courthouse without speaking to reporters and headed directly to National Rally headquarters, where senior party officials had convened a crisis meeting.

Her silence contrasted with her attorneys’ public statements and suggested that the party leadership intended to carefully evaluate the full implications of the historic ruling.

The stakes extend well beyond the legal issues.

Marine Le Pen must now choose between pursuing a fourth presidential campaign and remaining consistent with her long-held position that a presidential campaign cannot realistically be conducted while wearing an electronic ankle monitor.

Jordan Bardella, the party’s vice president, remains the fallback candidate should she decide not to run.

Patrick Maisonneuve, attorney for the European Parliament, underscored the significance of the appellate ruling, stating that the court had confirmed that “European taxpayers’ and French citizens’ money” had been diverted through “an organization that operated for years” under the leadership of the National Front.

Impact on the national rally’s electoral strategy

Regardless of Marine Le Pen’s decision, the National Rally has a credible alternative in Jordan Bardella.

Nevertheless, the possibility that Marine Le Pen could legally run reshapes the party’s internal dynamics and the balance of power within its leadership.

National Rally lawmaker Thomas Ménagé, who represents the Loiret department, said that “nothing changes” for the party’s members of Parliament, who would continue their legislative work regardless of who ultimately becomes the party’s presidential nominee.

The Court of Appeal’s Trap

The Court of Appeal’s ruling places Marine Le Pen in a genuine Catch-22.

Legally, she achieved a significant victory through the substantial reduction of her ineligibility sentence.

Politically and practically, however, the electronic ankle monitor remains a serious obstacle to conducting a conventional presidential campaign.

Her silence upon leaving the courthouse suggests she is taking time to consult with close advisers, party officials, and campaign strategists before deciding on the best course of action for both the National Rally and her own political future.

By allowing Marine Le Pen to remain eligible to run for president while simultaneously requiring her to wear an electronic ankle monitor, the court has placed both the National Rally and its leader in an exceptionally difficult strategic position.

L’article Marine Le Pen eligible to run for president est apparu en premier sur FrenchDailyNews.