FLASH
Shkruar nga Gavin Mortiner
In other words, she blamed Brussels. It's a clever line of defense, at least with voters, to accuse the EU of incompetence. The Union has never been so despised by the French as it is now...
Marine Le Pen returned to court this week to challenge her conviction last spring for misusing EU funds. Convicted of diverting more than €4m intended for Brussels work to pay her staff, the National Rally leader was fined €100,000 (£86,600) and disqualified from politics for five years with immediate effect.
The appeal will last a month, with a decision expected in June. If Le Pen is successful, she will be able to run in next year's presidential election; if she fails to overturn or drastically reduce the sentence, her successor, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, will represent the National Rally.
Le Pen struck a more conciliatory tone when she addressed the court at the start of the appeal. "I want to state from the outset that, if any criminal offence has been committed, I want the court to understand that we had absolutely no intention of doing anything wrong," she announced.
She and 10 other members of her party, all of whom are appealing their convictions, pointed the finger at Brussels. "The European Parliament did not warn us about anything, as it could have done," explained Le Pen, who insisted that "I firmly believe that we have never hidden anything."
Le Pen's party will emerge stronger from the appeal, despite the verdict
In other words, she blamed Brussels. It is a clever line of defense, at least with voters, to accuse the EU of incompetence. The union has never been more despised by the French than it is now, a result of the recent ‘Mercosur’ trade deal with South America that will be brilliant for the German car industry and disastrous for French farmers. The German president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will sign the deal in Paraguay on Saturday.
Le Pen's party will emerge stronger from the appeal, regardless of the verdict. If she is banned, then she will end her political career as a martyr; not only in the eyes of her 10 million-plus voters, but of the country at large.
A poll this week reported that 64 percent of people believe the judiciary is no longer impartial. Who can blame them when, in 2024, one of the profession's largest unions, representing 1/3 of judges, issued a statement on the eve of parliamentary elections calling on "all magistrates, as well as all those involved in the judicial system, to mobilize against the rise to power of the far right."
If Bardella replaces Le Pen as the presidential candidate, the National Rally will lose a bit. He lacks the experience of his mentor, but he has strong appeal among young people under 35 and is also more popular with the urban middle classes, who are worried about Le Pen's left-wing economy. If Le Pen wins her appeal, she will be able to boast that she defeated 'Le Blob', and her victory will underline her credentials as an anti-establishment candidate.
These days in France it pays to be anti-establishment. A poll this week by a prominent current affairs magazine reported that Bardella and Le Pen are the most popular political figures (both with an approval rating of 38 percent). Le Pen’s niece, MEP Marion Marechal, came in third with 28 percent. Politicians seen as part of the centrist system that has ruled France for half a century did not fare well in the poll. Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating was 15 percent.
Le Blob probably believed that Le Pen’s conviction for abuse of office would derail the National Rally’s momentum. On the contrary, their ideas have never been more fashionable, especially when it comes to addressing mass immigration and widespread insecurity. A poll conducted earlier this year by the newspaper Le Monde found that 42 percent of French people support Le Pen’s political manifesto.
When asked who is the biggest threat to democracy in France, 70 percent said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise party. Eric Zemmour of the right-wing Reconquest party (65 percent) was perceived as the second biggest threat, followed by Macron with 56 percent. Less than half of respondents mentioned Le Pen by name.
The poll results must have been a bitter pill to swallow for a progressive newspaper like Le Monde. For years they have waged a relentless war against Le Pen and her party, portraying them as far-right demagogues.
A minority of Le Pen voters may identify as far-right, but the vast majority are men and women who have simply reached the end of their rope. They open their newspapers (perhaps not Le Monde) and turn on their televisions, and what do they see? They see a country in free fall, economically, diplomatically, and socially. So far this year, a 15-year-old girl has been allegedly raped by an Algerian under an expulsion order, a Jew has been attacked on the Paris metro, and an innocent bystander has been shot dead in a drug shootout in Marseille.
This is why nothing will affect the popularity of the National Rally between now and next year's elections. The French people are turning their backs on an "elite" that now realizes it is nothing of the sort. /Adapted from The Spectator /
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