I doubt it will make any difference. Lots of UK northerners make the journey here regularly to watch the Dragons and vice-verce and UK players are in the team here. I was told by a neighbour that the accused maire had done some good but was spending money on too many projects and those that needed doing were ignored. We do have in every single commune here in this agglo either gendarmes or muncipal police or in my commune, we have both. Not many places in France with agglos can say that and apparently he was instrumental in getting this inplace to make people feel safer. There are parts of the city and its not that huge a place actually if you drive through or around it compared to other cities, that are run down and are mainly ghettos where only the same ethnic groups live but a lot of demolition work has been going on to remove some of these and replace with lower blocks of flats and disused buildings.
Did anyone watch her on TF1 20h last night giving Gilles Boulou a right mouthful? She denied any wrong doing and that the law was wrong and so on and on. I think maybe it was all show for her followers that she won’t take this lightly and is going to appeal asap.
It’s her Right to Appeal and to not do so would look bad… 
US president Donald Trump joined a growing list of populist and far-right leaders – including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders – offering their support to Le Pen, saying it was “a very big deal.”
Cretins.
I had to laugh/cry when I read that the Italian President said that he didn’t know the facts of the case, but it was wrong for the judges to have reached such a decision… 
Trump thinks the French legal system is as corrupt and politiciced as the US legal system. Is that why he has taken out something like 30 lawsuits in the past year?
Had an interesting chat with some French lady, while we waited in the Doc’s surgery. OH was trying to hide under a chair when I raised the political subject, but the lady was only too happy to vent her despair.
She was embarrassed at the behaviour of Le Pen and those who back her “Innocence” and her Right to remain a contender for the Presidentials …
Regardless of one’s politics… the Law is there to be obeyed!
That’s more or less the summation.
Which I imagine the majority ascribe to.
I wonder if the utter lack of public protest is quite telling in terms of public opinion.
There were people on the news at 13h handing out support Marine leaflets in her constituency. Most just walked on by or shook their heads.
Well 12 years ago, Marine Le Pen suggested exactly what she got! I have linked to the English translation.
https://www-sudouest-fr.translate.goog/justice/video-marine-le-pen-condamnee-quand-elle-plaidait-pour-des-peines-d-ineligibilite-a-vie-23868707.php?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en-GB&_x_tr_hl=en-GB[
Yes, it’s funny how politicians think it’s one rule for them and their party and another for everyone else.
Like the Republicans howling at Soros funding the Democrats are somehow happy with Musk doing the same thing (but with 10x the amount) for the Republicans.
Appeal won’t take place now until next year sometime.
I understood that it was being accelerated to next year as it was originally scheduled to finish after the election.
Don’t think a possible date had been previously announced, but 2026 is the best for all parties. Hopefully, the verdict will remain that a crime was committed, meanwhile the NR will continue to ignore that inconvenient fact.
Clumsy language on my part, broadly expected rather than scheduled.
I never went on a twin town trip to Perpignan, but I did go to the German twin , Rendsburg.
I laughed out loud when Trump said about Le Pen’s case that it sounds just like this country.
No it isn’t, it is the exact opposite, the USA allows a convicted criminal to stand and become President. France, apparently, does not.
He simply cannot open his mouth without condemning his lack of a brain, can he?
Once again the rich get away with it. She and her associates have stolen a vast amount of money . If you or I had done the same we would be in goal now. She gets a suspended sentence and home imprisonment. A fine that someone else pays.
Should the President of France be a criminal?