A jubilant “GUILTY” plastered over Marine Le Pen’s face filled the cover of the French centre-left newspaper, Libération, on April 1.
Such was the reaction by most left-leaning people to Monday’s ruling by a criminal court in Paris that the leader of France’s far-right wing party National Rally (RN) was guilty of embezzling European Union funds.
We certainly won’t be shedding any tears for the guilty verdict of a corrupt politician who in 2004 on TV network INA said that the National Rally was “the only party not to have stolen from the till.” Yet, before you start breaking out the socialist champagne, consider this: Marine Le Pen’s conviction is not the silver bullet that many on the Left think it is. In fact, it could even backfire.
The court ruled that Le Pen and her party misappropriated around €4 million intended for European Parliament assistants, diverting these funds to finance RN activities in France. In the sentencing, the chief judge announced a four-year jail sentence for the nationalist politician, with two years suspended and the remaining two to be served using an electronic tag rather than in custody. Le Pen was also fined €100,000 euros and the RN was issued with a €2 million fine.
The main ramifications of the court’s findings, however, are political. Le Pen has effectively been banned from running for office for the next five years, essentially disqualifying her from the 2027 presidential election. This disqualification via the courts — rather than by popular vote — is exactly what has allowed Le Pen and her allies to brand the ruling “a threat to democracy.” She has announced plans to appeal the ruling.
Even if the ruling is upheld, however, we have to look no further than across the pond to see that criminal convictions are not the lead balloon to political office that they might have been at one point.
President Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments, has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and has been found guilty of fraudulent business practices. He is also still facing multiple indictments including in relation to federal election interference in the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents.
If the Trump case study shows us anything, it’s that being convicted of a criminal offence — particularly one as seemingly victimless as the misappropriation of parliamentary funds — does not dampen your chances of running a country.
What’s more, the Le Pen case throws her back into the headlines to make her, according to her most devoted allies, a martyr and victim of an anti-democratic process. Following the decision, Le Pen’s allies took to social media to denounce the verdict and attempt to discredit the integrity of the judiciary, following principles inherited from the late Roy Cohn. Never apologize — and be sure to slander the messenger. Jordan Bardella, her next in command, said that French democracy had been “executed” with the “unjust” verdict and called for a “mobilisation.” Far-right Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán posted “I am Marine” on his X account.
Le Pen’s appeal to the electorate, similar to Trump’s, is that she is anti-establishment. To her followers, she has put the political correctness rulebook in the bin, gives the finger to the bourgeois elite, is a woman of the people and is happy to do things differently — and if that ruffles some legal feathers, so be it.
Indeed, on television network TF1, Le Pen denounced the verdict as a politically motivated attempt to sideline her from future elections. She said: “The system has dropped a nuclear bomb because we are on the verge of winning.” Words straight out of the Trump playbook.
Members of the RN are defiantly stressing that the court’s findings will strengthen the party’s popularity instead of reducing it, and they’re not wrong. The ostracisation of a character like Le Pen is exactly why she has so much appeal to her following. Convictions of leaders with far-right cult followings can add fuel to the flames.
Furthermore, while the criminal proceedings might take her out of the next presidential race, Le Pen’s five-year ban will expire before the following one in 2032, at which point she will be 64 — a political spring chicken.
While the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP), came out on top in the July snap elections, this broad church of parties ranging from the (neoliberal) Socialist Party to the Greens to the Communists were united only by their desire to keep the Far Right out of government.
Instead of complacency following Le Pen’s potential removal from competing in the race, the French Left must unite behind a radically socialist vision that isn’t simply “not Marine Le Pen” — to stand for something, not just against.
Read the analysis on our French sister site Révolution Permanente
