\n<\/p>\n
In March last year, a Paris court found Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and barred her from running in next year\u2019s presidential race in France. The far-right figurehead took to the airwaves to slam a \u201cpolitical decision\u201d and \u201cdenial of democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Le Pen, who has appealed, said she had been subjected to a \u201ctyranny of judges\u201d and a \u201cpolitical assassination\u201d. The \u201csystem\u201d had dropped \u201ca nuclear bomb\u201d on her. The presiding judge was then threatened by others on social media and her home address shared.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party, speaks to supporters at Place Vauban last April telling them that she\u2019ll keep fighting what she described as a \u2018political\u2019 court ruling that barred her from running for president.<\/span> Photograph: Anita Pouchard Serra\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Six months later, the former rightwing president Nicolas Sarkozy was handed a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy. He denounced a decision \u201cof extreme gravity in regard to the rule of law and for people\u2019s trust in the justice system\u201d.<\/p>\n The court was motivated by a \u201chatred that truly knows no bounds\u201d, Sarkozy added. The \u201cinjustice\u201d it represented was \u201ca scandal\u201d and those who \u201chate me so much\u201d were \u201chumiliating France\u201d, he said. France\u2019s justice minister made a point of visiting him in prison.<\/p>\n A properly functioning, independent justice system is \u2013 as Liberties, a Europe-wide network of civil liberties NGOs, notes \u2013 \u201cthe cornerstone of the rule of law\u201d, ensuring accountability, safeguarding people\u2019s rights, and upholding fairness and equality.<\/p>\n <\/span>A supporter of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy holds a banner which reads \u2018shame on justice\u2019 outside his home in Paris, on the day of Sarkozy\u2019s imprisonment.<\/span> Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty ImagesQ&A<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The rule of law is the set of standards and principles that ensures no one in society is above the law, and that everyone is treated equally, in accordance with the values of democracy and fundamental rights, and under the control of independent courts.<\/p>\n Defined more broadly, it should ensure that authorities use their powers and public resources for citizens\u2019 good. That means, among other things, that people should be accurately and fairly informed by a free and plural media, and able to express their views through civil society organisations and by exercising their right to protest.<\/p>\n To make sure those standards are met, the rule of law requires governments to maintain independent, impartial institutions \u2013 including, most obviously, the judiciary.<\/p>\n On 12 April, Hungary will hold a general election in which Viktor Orb\u00e1n risks defeat. For more than a decade, Orb\u00e1n has shown how the rule of law can be degraded in a modern EU country.<\/p>\n He has packed the courts with judges loyal to him, and the media with editors happy to parrot his propaganda. He has tyrannised NGOs, and curbed LGBT and other human rights, creating what he has called an “illiberal democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n He may be out next month, but the rule of law is increasingly under threat across Europe. In this series, Guardian correspondents look at the state of the rule of law in four major EU countries: what\u2019s crumbling, and why it matters.<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n In Hungary, the prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who next month faces an unprecedented challenge to his 16 years in power, has systematically eroded judicial independence through a string of constitutional and legal changes, packing the courts with loyalist judges and effectively capturing the justice system.<\/p>\n But even in countries with historically strong democratic reputations, independent justice systems are at risk. Political attacks \u2013 including on individual judges \u2013 are becoming increasingly common, dangerously undermining public confidence, Liberties said in its 2026 report.<\/p>\n <\/span>Hungarian judges and court employees demonstrate for the independence of the judiciary and against the policies of the Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government in Budapest last year.<\/span> Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n In France, the body charged with maintaining magistrates\u2019 independence has felt obliged to respond. It is \u201cnot acceptable in a democracy\u201d for judges to be threatened or politicians to comment on individual prosecutions and sentences, said the Conseil Sup\u00e9rieur de la Magistrature. The magistrates\u2019 union has warned of an \u201cassault on the entire justice system\u201d and drawn comparisons with countries such as Hungary.<\/p>\n France \u2013 and most other European countries \u2013 has not, plainly, reached that stage yet. But when a hardline interior minister describes rule of law as \u201cneither untouchable nor sacred\u201d, and a justice minister rejects European court decisions, \u201cwe have passed a number of tipping points\u201d, said one leading magistrate, Magali Lafourcade.<\/p>\n Civil liberties groups have other concerns about France\u2019s justice system, including its true independence (prosecutors are appointed by the justice ministry), chronic underfunding, and the decades it can take to deliver justice.<\/p>\n Similar issues have long been a problem in other EU member states, too. But political attacks on this scale are a relatively new phenomenon in most, and an obvious cause for alarm if authoritarian far-right governments come to power \u2013 as in Italy.<\/p>\n Giorgia Meloni\u2019s government has engaged in a veritable power struggle with Italy\u2019s judiciary since its election in 2022. Among its first moves was to abolish the crime of abuse of office, a change pushed by the late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.<\/p>\n <\/span>Giorgia Meloni greets supporters at a campaign meeting of Italian right wing party Brothers of Italy to support the Yes vote for in the Justice referendum.<\/span> Photograph: Stefano Rellandini\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Meloni\u2019s administration has also limited the use of wiretapping. It frequently attacks the judiciary, slamming \u201cpoliticised magistrates\u201d trying to \u201cabolish Italy\u2019s borders\u201d when the courts blocked her attempts to set up repatriation centres in Albania.<\/p>\n Targeted herself in an inquiry into the release and repatriation of a Libyan warlord wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court, Meloni dismissed the investigation as a leftist plot and said she was \u201cnot blackmailable, not intimidated\u201d.<\/p>\n Attacks intensified before Italy\u2019s recent referendum on a government-backed judicial reform aimed at separating the career paths of judges and prosecutors, establishing two governing councils selected by lottery and creating a disciplinary court.<\/p>\n Meloni\u2019s government said the reforms were essential for impartiality, to weed out alleged leftwing judicial \u201cfactions\u201d. Opponents said the reform was a highly partisan project that would weaken judges and prosecutors\u2019 power and independence.<\/p>\n In the end, in a plebiscite that rapidly became a general verdict on her government and its record, Meloni lost \u2013 but many observers saw in her willingness to confront and \u201ctame\u201d Italy\u2019s judiciary a tactic from Orb\u00e1n\u2019s playbook.<\/p>\n <\/span>People walk past campaign posters to promote the Yes vote to the referendum on Justice reform. Voters in Italy rejected Giorgia Meloni\u2019s attempts to reform the judiciary in a constitutional referendum.<\/span> Photograph: Stefano Rellandini\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Even in countries with particularly robust judicial systems, such as Germany, pressures are mounting, observers say. Liberties has identified both lack of funding and far-right attempts to undermine judicial independence as requiring urgent attention.<\/p>\n An overburdened and underpaid judiciary, with looming staff shortages due to large numbers of judges approaching retirement, threatens to compound problems clearing the case load, with many proceedings already taking far too long.<\/p>\n At a regional level, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), well represented in many states and especially in the east, has blocked the reappointment of judicial officials in the state of Thuringia in an attempt to win concessions on other issues.<\/p>\n Concern has also focused on the \u201cvulnerability\u201d of Germany\u2019s highest tribunal, the federal constitutional court, to attempts at manipulation, particularly by the AfD, although the Bundestag lower house has moved to address this. The then interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said the aim was to ensure \u201cenemies of our democracy don\u2019t have a gateway\u201d to the judicial system. Autocrats \u201calways turn first against the judiciary\u201d and constitutional courts \u201care often their first targets\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n To the east, meanwhile, Poland is finding out just how hard it is to reverse the controversial judicial reforms that brought it into conflict with the EU under the previous rule of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.<\/p>\n Inspired by Orb\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d, PiS aggressively overhauled Poland\u2019s justice system during its eight years in power, capturing the constitutional court and other institutions and radically expanding the role of justice minister.<\/p>\n Unwinding those changes has proved complicated for Donald Tusk\u2019s government because the prime minister\u2019s coalition does not have the necessary three-fifths majority to overturn a presidential veto, and only very limited progress has been made.<\/p>\n Much to its voters\u2019 frustration, the Tusk government, elected in 2023, held off from taking action until the 2025 presidential elections, hoping its candidate would win \u2013 but Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski lost to a national-conservative rival backed by PiS, leaving the process effectively stalled.<\/p>\n <\/span>Karol Nawrocki and his wife Marta Nawrocka wave as they walk near the Royal Castle in Warsaw on the day he took the oath of office in August 2025. He refused to approve the appointment of 46 judges in November.<\/span> Photograph: Kacper Pempel\/Reuters<\/p>\n Last November, the new president, Karol Nawrocki, refused to approve the appointment of 46 judges. Tusk\u2019s former justice minister, Adam Bodnar, has spoken about the challenge of convincing people to focus on rule of law issues.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, a pretty significant part of the population didn\u2019t see any big problem,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were not concerned with institutions, the constitutional court, the judiciary \u2026 but more interested in, say, their social welfare situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Struggling to change the legislative framework, the Polish government is instead focusing on \u201creckoning\u201d with the previous government\u2019s actions, with several senior PiS officials placed under investigation and facing charges for alleged abuses of power.<\/p>\n In particular, the architect of PiS\u2019s judiciary reforms, Zbigniew Ziobro, is wanted by Polish authorities in relation to 26 separate charges \u2013 but he has claimed asylum in Hungary, and remains out of the reach of the Polish justice system.<\/p>\n Better, by far, than trying to unpick all this retrospectively was to be aware of the threat and act, said Lafourcade, who says she found herself in the crosshairs of transatlantic tensions last year when officials from the Trump administration sought to lobby her against an election ban for Le Pen.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the US right now, and ask if tomorrow we want an independent judiciary or not,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen a regime tips into the arbitrary and the authoritarian, it can happen fast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In March last year, a Paris court found Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and barred her from running in next year\u2019s presidential race in France. The far-right figurehead took to the airwaves to slam a \u201cpolitical decision\u201d and \u201cdenial of democracy\u201d. Le Pen, who has appealed, said she had been subjected to a \u201ctyranny<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[360,1839,896,8305,2282,175,1156,8228],"class_list":{"0":"post-47747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-assault","9":"tag-attacks","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-farright","12":"tag-justice","13":"tag-law","14":"tag-rule","15":"tag-threatening"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is the misrule of law series about? <\/h4>\n