French judges in Washington’s crosshairs. In a survey, the German magazine The mirror reveals that the Trump administration would have considered implementing new sanctions against several officials from European countries, responsible according to the American State Department for fueling “censorship” which would be at work on the continent. Among his targets? The three magistrates who convicted at first instance the former candidate for the presidential election of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen.
Four years in prison, including two prison sentences, as well as five years of ineligibility with immediate execution, were handed down against her during the deliberations on March 31. His appeal trial in this case of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front MEPs must be held in Paris from January 13. While Donald Trump had called for “freeing” Marine Le Pen after her conviction, the United States would therefore have considered punishing the French judges who led the debates during the hearing.
German officials also targeted
This American decision, which has not yet been implemented, would mark a new stage of growing mistrust between Washington and its allies on the Old Continent. In addition to its disagreements with the Europeans on geopolitical matters, particularly on the Ukrainian issue, the Republican administration has continued in recent months to display a certain contempt towards the leaders of the various allied countries in the area. “Freedom of expression is in decline” in Europe, lamented the American vice-president, JD Vance, during his speech at the Munich (Germany) conference last February. During this speech, he denounced, for example, European regulations on digital matters or the treatment reserved, according to him, for certain far-right parties.
During this speech, JD Vance more particularly alluded to the logic of the “firewall” put in place in Germany against the German nationalist party AfD. Traditional political parties, including the CDU/CSU of current Chancellor Friedrich Merz, are refusing to reach agreements with the AfD. However, since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the German populist movement has increased its contacts with the MAGA sphere (“Make America Great Again”, named after the American president’s flagship slogan). Several senior American officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, protested in the spring when the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a branch of the German secret service, classified the AfD as a “far-right party”.
Now suspended due to a complaint filed by the German party, this qualification could also have led to American sanctions. Indeed, still according to The mirrorthe American State Department would have considered issuing travel bans in the United States against the German secret service officials who were behind the classification of the AfD as a far-right group. In its article, the weekly even mentions the option of hypothetical financial sanctions against these senior officials. Contacted by the newspaper both on this file, but also on that concerning Marine Le Pen, the State Department neither confirmed nor denied having the desire to undertake this type of sanctions.
American sanctions against Thierry Breton
Would the United States wait for the outcome of the next legal steps in France and Germany to implement such measures? This is a scenario that should not be ruled out. In recent months, the American government has shown that it is ready to take action to defend its vision of the world. Thus, on December 23, Washington banned five European personalities promoting the regulation of tech or the fight against disinformation and online hatred in organizations based in the United Kingdom and Germany. The Frenchman Thierry Breton, former European commissioner at the initiative of Digital Services Act (DSA), is also one of those figures targeted by the United States, on the pretext that it would have contributed to building “a global censorship industrial complex” with this regulation.
In Brazil, Alexandre de Moraes, the Supreme Court judge responsible for the legal proceedings against Jair Bolsonaro, was also affected this summer by American sanctions. The Trump administration then believed that its position had allowed it to “target political opponents”, such as the far-right ex-president. At first instance, the ex-leader was sentenced to 27 years in prison for “attempted coup d’état”, but remained supported by Donald Trump throughout his trial.
A sentence ultimately reduced to just over 2 years behind bars, after the vote on a law by Brazilian parliamentarians before Christmas. In any case, this text seems to have satisfied the American president and his supporters: even before this reduction in sentence was definitively voted on, Washington had already removed Alexandre de Moraes from its list of personalities under sanctions.
