The far-right is not happy about Marine Le Pen being found guilty of embezzlement yesterday. As the Guardian notes:
Overnight, US president Donald Trump joined a growing list of populist and far-right leaders – including Hungary's Viktor Orbán, Italy's Matteo Salvini,and the Netherlands' Geert Wilders – offering their support to Le Pen, saying it was “a very big deal.”
“I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn't going to be convicted of anything,” he said.
Elon Musk, Tesla's billionaire owner, who has backed the far right in Germany and plays a major role in Trump's administration, said the sentence against Le Pen would “backfire, like the legal attacks against president Trump”.
And this morning, Le Pen's close party ally and potential presidential candidate if she remains banned, National Rally president Jordan Bardella continued in the same vein, loyally declaring his continuing support for Le Pen.
Isn't it strange how relaxed the far-right are about mis-spent government money when they are the beneficiaries? Am I alone in noting just a hint of hypocrisy here?
More importantly, the question is why should they tolerate a failure of the rule of law, which is what they are demanding? If we do not have the rule of law, we cannot have democracy. Is that why they are so excited about this case? Might it be that democracy is not on their bucket list?
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Hypocrisy and a complete lack (or disregard) of self-awareness. It’s the conservative rule of law: “there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Trump views Le Pen as being in his in-group, clearly. I note the headline in the Daily Telegraph, “No Trade Deal Without Free Speech.” Trump is concerned about the right to protest of a pro-life activist. No mention of the climate activists in prison, or the Youth Action members arrested on Friday. In groups and out groups. My free speech, not theirs.
What did anyone expect?
The Far Right always use indignation and victim-hood to make their cause.
They’re exceptionalists – the first exception being themselves.
The science of it all is so predictable – we’ve experimented with the Far Right in human societies for years.
It will not go away, but we know how it all ends. Maybe we’ll learn one day.
Isn’t it also hypocritical when quite a few left wing / Eurocrat politicians have also been caught and found guilty of exactly the same thing and not been punished?
Christine Lagarde immediately comes to mind but there have been several others.
And it’s not like the EU powers that be don’t have form in trying to censure politicians they don’t like in other countries – look at Romania, Poland and Hungary for examples.
I would be happy for them to be punished in the same way
Victor Orban of Hungary is pretty much a dictator, and so his condemnation of Le Pen’s conviction as a threat to democracy is pretty much akin to the fox protesting the farmer for his imprisonment of his chickens.
Agreed
At the risk of being pedantic, Christine Lagarde may indeed come to mind, but she isn’t really of the Left. She’s a Centrist.
Here’s some evidence about French politicians that HAVE been prosecuted:
‘It is indeed what happened with previous French politicians who were found guilty of rather similar activities. Alain Juppé, protege of Jacques Chirac, was given a (suspended) eighteen-month jail sentence and banned from political activity for a decade for presiding over the creation of ‘ghost jobs’, where money from the Parisian city government (under mayor Chirac) was channeled to funding the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR), the political party to which Juppé and Chirac belonged.
Francois Fillon – once the apparent future of conservative French politics – was found during the Presidential campaign of 2017 to have paid his wife Penelope and his children to act as legislative aides for decades, without them obviously carrying out any such work. The wonderfully named ‘Penelopegate’ resulted in custodial sentences and enormous fines for both Francois and Penelope.
Nicolas Sarkozy also received a custodial sentence (served as home confinement) after leaving office as President – this time for two different campaign finance scandals, one in 2007 and one in 2012.
All of this is to say, French politicians have a lot of previous here. And have been punished in equivalently draconian fashion.’
Link: https://benansell.substack.com/p/for-my-enemies-no-law
Not just fascists, then.
Thank you for documenting this.
Really good segment on a similar theme from Ari Melber on MSBNC, on Trumps claim that he’ll have a third term, citing what Putin did in Russia and that, despite the US constitution, Trump and his allies are obviously planning this. The segment to watch is ‘Takedown…’
https://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber
I am sure they are planning this
A few years ago Le Pen herself was extremely critical of exactly this kind of behaviour, and even made it a selling point that the RN had “clean hands”. There were several recordings broadcast on French TV last night and she was very clear that misuse of public funds was a serious mistake and (if I understood it correctly) she was very much in favour of people found guilty of it being banned from public office. The evidence in this case seems cut and dried.
But we still have the problem that the arguments expressed here will not hold water in the FN powerbases.
Just like Trump’s fraud convictions didn’t alienate hardcore MAGA, and certainly didn’t turn MAGA voters into democrats.
(It is Trump’s FAILURES that will be his undoing amongst his powerbase,, not his convictions.)
Of course the legal actions against Trump, Le Pen & Fa***e are right on moral grounds (but was that really why they were prosecuted? I doubt it, otherwise there would be a lot MORE prosecutions of a lot more politicians with a lot more being banned from seeking election). It’s v hard to answer that charge of hypocrisy levied at the European ruling elite ,- yes, you Lagarde and others).
But as a political strategy?
No, because the left-behind communities are already totally disillusioned with “the rule of law”. What does “law” do for them? Does it prosecute those responsible for Grenfell or sub-prime mortgages or big pharma corruption or genocide? Very rarely. Does it deal effectively with rogue lanlords, tax evasion, corporate fraud? Did it stop Arron Banks standing for WECA mayor in May in my region?
No it did not.
Law takes their children into care, evicts them from their homes, silences their protests, and smashes into their places of worship. Law protects the guilty and bankrupts the innocent with SLAPP actions.
They can keep Le Pen out of parliament, but what is needed is transformative politics to make people’s lives better.
Most left-behind communities will see Le Pen’s ban as “them” gaming the system again, and maintaining the grossly unjust status quo. And though the French courts have done the “right” thing, too much has been left UNdone.
Sorry, this one makes me quite angry but not at anyone here.
Be clear, I’m glad Le Pen won’t be a candidate for President. But we do need to listen, really listen, to her supporters’ grievances before it is too late. Or we will ALL go down.
I’m also very disappinted in the media reporting on this, both in France and the UK, which has (once again) played directly into the right-wing agenda, by focusing on the political reactions to the verdict without reporting the facts of the case. The judgement was actually extremely long and detailed – but how many people have got any of its messages, while the idea that it was politically motivated has been broadcast time and time again ?
Agreed
Can’t speak for the UK media but I’ve been stomping around and spluttering in my beard about the French reporting. You are exactly correct: a lot of clips about how disgusted the interviewees are, a lot of Musk-lite nonsense about democracy being attacked and precious little detail of the infractions. Really makes me wonder about the agenda of the media we watch (which I thought was fairly middle of the road, say Radio 4ish). Just pandering to the need for conflict reportage. Very disappointing.
I am pleased freedom of speech, the shortcomings of democracy, and the rule of law are being openly questioned. Eg we have an elected US president who issues decrees which he calls executive orders. What is then the point of having a legislature? We profess freedom of speech but round up Twitter enthusiasts. These things are no longer clear-cut.