The decision handed down by the Paris Criminal Court against Marine Le Pen is severe (four years in prison, two of which are custodial sentences to be served under electronic surveillance, a fine of 100,000 euros, and a five-year ban on holding public office with provisional enforcement).
Not so much the sentence itself, given the seriousness of the facts, but rather the provisional execution ordered. Indeed, the front-runner in the presidential election could be forced not to stand (barring a presidential pardon).
Reactions overflowing with demagogy
Nevertheless, this decision is a welcome one because it reveals that the French far right… remains the far right. While Marine Le Pen may have, in certain respects, provided guarantees of realism or relative moderation, that is not the case for her inner circle and her base. The reactions of the RN heavyweights and the identitarians calling into question the judicial system as a whole and putting a target on the magistrate behind the verdict are disgraceful. True to form, the leopard cannot change its spots. Those who claimed to be exemplary and could not find harsh enough words to denounce political corruption have demonstrated their hypocrisy.
Multiple potential candidates who are putting on a show of shedding crocodile tears
The widespread hypocrisy of those who shed crocodile tears over this verdict while secretly jubilant is flagrant.
First of all, Bardella. The man who exposed the total vacuity of his political thought during the between-rounds of the legislative elections, who has never worked outside the political inner circle, is feeling emboldened. Let's be clear, he doesn't stand the slightest chance of withstanding a presidential election and the political fraud would quickly be unmasked.
The Zemmour-Knafo duo are over the moon. In high spirits thanks to the daily platform afforded to them by Bolloréland, they believe they are in a position to launch a takeover bid for the RN. But, fortunately, Bolloréland is not France, and it is likely that the 7% votes Zemmour secured in 2002 – despite an extremely costly campaign – represent a glass ceiling.
Finally, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen would have had a better chance than Bardella, despite her inexperience. But she betrayed at the wrong time. Treason in politics is unforgivable when it is done in favour of the loser.
The political elimination of Marine Le Pen, should it be confirmed, would very likely benefit Bruno Retailleau. The rhetoric is identical, with an additional clerical and anti-secular touch for the Minister of the Interior. Bruno Retailleau is in a position to achieve the «union of the right», which in reality is the integration of a shrivelled populist right within the far right.
An extreme right now subjugated to foreign interests
The support received from all quarters by the American and European far-rights shows that there is a global coordination, an international of populists, now led by Trump (replacing Putin) and his entourage in order to bring to power, in Europe, regimes that are politically similar and totally subservient to the parent company. The RN, which has completely mutated in its foreign policy under the impetus of Bardella, has become nothing more or less than a political grouping entirely subservient to Trump, Netanyahu and NATO. Proof of this is the complete lack of reaction when two French gendarmes were knocked to the ground and mistreated by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem: zero reaction. As for Reconquête, the frantic quest for closeness, even via the back stairs, to a Trump label disqualifies it from embodying a sovereign France.
The French far right now serves foreign interests. Its agenda is no longer national, but at the service of a coalition orchestrated from abroad to destroy the democratic foundations of European nations. And particularly those of that unruly French Republic which, in the past, when it was led by great men, was able to carry a humanist message with a global vocation.
It remains to be seen who will be the candidate best able to occupy the central and not centrist ground. Dominique de Villepin, should he decide to run, would very likely be that person.
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