Marine Le Pen’s pernicious offensive

dSince the prosecutor’s office received the searches on Wednesday, November 13 at the Paris court, Marine Le Pen has led an intense communication campaign to try to discredit the justice system and transform the process of the assistants of the MEPs of the National Front, now Rally National. – in a political trial whose sole objective would be to exclude her from political life by making her ineligible. He was ordered five years in prison, three of which were suspended, a fine of 300,000 euros and five years of disqualification, with provisional execution. “A political death sentence”he said, on Friday, November 15.

For those seeking to establish themselves from 2022, this offensive is above all a spectacular admission of weakness. The 27 defendants in this case appeared powerless, during the trial, to question the existence of a systemic and massive misappropriation of public funds organized by Jean-Marie Le Pen and then by his daughter, between 2004 and 2016, to put the assistants of the MEPs almost exclusively serve the party and its leaders.

However, since the Sapin 2 law of December 9, 2016, the penalty of ineligibility is mandatory for this type of infraction. Those responsible for the RN, who continue to denounce judicial laxity, who demand the multiplication of minimum sentences or even the immediate execution of sentences, do not do particularly well in questioning the rigor of the law when it concerns them, unless they consider that There are two types of justice, one for the weak and another for the strong.

It is by relying on her political capital, on the millions of votes she represents but also on the weight acquired by the RN in the National Assembly, that Marine Le Pen intends, between the requisitions and the first instance ruling, to influence the course of the situation. justice. The decision of the criminal court is expected in early 2025, it is up to him to follow or not the requests of the prosecutor’s office. The key issue is the provisional execution of the ineligibility, which, if confirmed, would prevent Marine Le Pen from competing in the 2027 presidential elections, without waiting for the result of the appeals she could file.

Danger of error

Whatever decision it makes, the court is already caught up in the previously organized political upheaval: if it is more lenient than the requisitions, Marine Le Pen will be glad to have won the round. Whether he confirms or toughens them, on the contrary he will be accused of having deprived the “French people” of their freedom of expression.

The offensive is all the more pernicious as it takes place in a climate of growing protest against the rule of law, fueled by the far right and, more recently, by the right. Popular sovereignty increasingly competes with the judicial power, which is supposed to hinder it.

With great imprudence, the former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin saw fit to declare that “It would be deeply shocking if Marine Le Pen were deemed ineligible.” and therefore cannot be presented to the French people. ». To say this is to misunderstand the danger, to refuse to see that those who, by opposition, undermine the third estate are the same ones who, once in power, do everything possible to subjugate it. The evolution of the so-called illiberal democracies, as well as what is emerging in the United States, are only the chilling demonstration of this.