The Verdict Against Marine Le Pen: Justice vs. Populism or the End of Democratic Illusion?

The Last Day of the Past Month Remains a Milestone in Modern French History – Marine Le Pen, Opposition Leader, Was Convicted and Banned from Running for Office. Yet, This Is Only Part of a Bigger Story.

Photo: Marine Le Pen

The West has undergone significant changes since the fall of the Soviet Union. With Donald Trump’s entry into politics, these changes have accelerated, bringing back some episodes from Western history—often in a new form. A good example of these transformations is Marine Le Pen, or her father, Jean-Marie Louis Le Pen, who founded the party his daughter would later transform beyond recognition.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, was a classic far-right extremist—someone who found Adolf Hitler’s politics acceptable and automatically regarded Jewish and Muslim citizens of France as enemies. Because of this, he was for years considered the most troubling figure in French politics, someone whom the rest of the political establishment consistently prevented from gaining power. France’s major parties successfully united against him and his party whenever needed. Since 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen came close to winning the presidential election, the French establishment has relied on what's known as the “Republican Front.”

But the National Front began to change. Marine Le Pen took over the party, expelled her father, and eventually renamed the party to the National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN). She reshaped the political strategy of her father and the party’s founder—now, Jews were no longer the enemy. The focus shifted primarily to Muslims and eventually to anyone who didn’t think like her, even if their positions occasionally overlapped with hers. Ultimately, anyone was acceptable if their support could help the RN gain power.

In 2022, she appointed young Jordan Bardella—who was then romantically involved with her niece, the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen—as the head of the rebranded party. Bardella pushed the party further toward the political center in what was yet another rebranding. He claimed that anyone could be French if they embraced French culture and tradition, suggesting that becoming French was a matter of personal choice. He embodied this idea himself—Bardella is the son of a French father and an Italian mother from Turin, the daughter of an Algerian worker.

When the Front Became a Rally

Though the National Rally remained a family affair, the party was changing internally. Over a decade, Marine Le Pen brought together all those disillusioned with official Parisian politics and the programs of mainstream parties. Le Pen and her party became a movement of the dissatisfied—people who knew what they didn’t want but rarely articulated a clear vision of what they did want. Things became even more absurd when questions arose about how they intended to realize their goals.

However, the crises afflicting France gave strength to the RN. The unpopular pension reform carried out by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, illegal immigration and declining street safety, increased military spending and aid to Ukraine, slowing economic growth, rising costs of goods and services, and cuts to health and education—these are just some of the issues the RN capitalized on.

While the left fragmented, the right was dominated by the RN. In recent years, the RN has attracted conservatives, traditionalists, Eurosceptics, farmers, believers, old-school republicans, low-paid workers, those who support France remaining in the EU under certain conditions, supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and more recently, those who view Trump as the leader of the future. RN’s allies—at least in rhetoric—are anyone who opposes any government policy at a given moment.

Even if this coalition seems contradictory, it’s happening because France and the West are at a crossroads in a time when political ideologies are being redefined and new parties are replacing the traditional ones.

In last year’s elections, RN came fourth in power after the second round of parliamentary voting, though it was the strongest individual party in the first round with nearly 30% of the vote. Bardella was described by the media as a “new kind of nationalist.” The party received over ten million votes.

Marine Le Pen isn’t sitting idle. She remains the real leader and public face of the party, a shadow figure using Bardella’s media skills to advance. She makes strategic decisions, guiding the party politically and ideologically. Her conviction was the result of this role—she wanted to run in the next presidential elections with an expanded voter base.

Conviction for Crime or Political Elimination?

France, too, isn’t immune to politicians presenting themselves as victims of the system. Some try to portray their convictions as political conspiracies. While in some global cases, this may be true, Marine Le Pen’s case is not among them. Her supporters cite Romania, where the court removed Călin Georgescu from the ballot after he won the first round of annulled presidential elections.

But the verdict against Le Pen is not a conspiracy—it concerns a specific case with clear evidence. According to many neutral observers in France, she broke the law of the country she swears loyalty to. She and 24 other members of the RN were accused of redirecting around €4 million—legally obtained from the European Parliament—to pay party staff in France. According to the verdict, Marine Le Pen personally embezzled €474,000 during her time as an MEP.

The law clearly states that funds from the European Parliament must only be used for activities at that level. Otherwise, parties—especially in poorer EU countries—could use EU money to finance national election campaigns, gaining unfair advantages.

The court found Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and barred her from running for public office for five years, sentencing her to four years in prison, two of which were suspended. She must also pay a €100,000 fine. Le Pen announced she will appeal the ruling and said she will fight it through legal means.

Yesterday, she compared her case to Martin Luther King Jr., who fought racial segregation in the U.S. about 50 years ago. “Our struggle will be peaceful and democratic. We take Martin Luther King as our example, who defended civil rights—because today it is the civil rights of the French that are at stake,” Le Pen said.

A few days earlier, her associates had also invoked the legacy of the American Baptist preacher and activist assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

Le Pen and her supporters strongly condemned the verdict, calling it a political attack, a democratic crisis, and an assault on political freedom—refusing even to entertain the idea that laws can constrain political elites or that she committed a crime.

What seems to hurt them most is the part of the verdict banning Le Pen from the 2027 presidential race. Polls had shown she was the frontrunner.

The Emerging West?

Le Pen and her RN supporters weren’t the only ones outraged by the verdict. She received support from both the Kremlin and the White House. Numerous statements of condemnation came from the U.S., particularly from Vice President JD Vance and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

“When the radical left can’t win democratic elections, they abuse the judicial system to imprison their opponents,” Musk posted on X. “It’s their standard tactic globally.”

But Musk isn’t entirely right—at least not regarding whom French courts target. In France, various politicians have been convicted for corruption or embezzlement: Prime Minister Alain Juppé (2004), Budget Minister Jérôme Cahuzac (2016), Presidential Candidate François Fillon (2020), President Nicolas Sarkozy (2021), President Jacques Chirac (2011), Interior Minister Claude Guéant (2015), and many more. Politicians from across the spectrum—including former presidents—have been tried.

For years, the current opposition, including RN, has told President Macron that he too will one day face justice for alleged misdeeds.

So, the post–WWII Western system still functions. Courts are often stronger than individuals, and laws apply to everyone—despite many flaws.

Those very flaws are used as a justification by a group of politicians who argue that the system must be reshaped to match their version of democracy. In the last U.S. election, we often heard that democracy is “whatever the majority votes for.” That mindset includes Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp”—to reform institutions by firing anyone who doesn’t comply with the new leadership. Musk now has a department in the government focusing on this, while workers and unions are suing after being rapidly laid off.

The courts appear to be the final barrier to the right’s vision. In Wisconsin, during recent elections for the state’s Supreme Court, Musk promoted Trump’s candidate, even offering voters $1 million prizes to support someone aligned with Washington’s ruling powers.

Resistance of the Establishment

But the resilience of the current system showed in that same election—the candidate Musk and Trump opposed won. Yet the new right doesn’t stop.

After targeting international treaties and law during Trump’s first term, they now go after courts—and potentially the U.S. Constitution itself. Trump recently said he wanted to run for a third term—despite the Constitution forbidding it. “No, I’m not joking. I’m not joking,” Trump said. “But it’s too early to talk about that… There are ways you can do it, as you know.”

Senator Bernie Sanders claims that the U.S. is becoming an oligarchy, threatening its democracy. “I’m trying to make it clear to people across the U.S. and the world that Americans will not sit back and let Trump create an oligarchy where Musk and other billionaires run our government,” Sanders said during a tour of the U.S.

“We will not sit back and let him form an authoritarian society, undermining the Constitution, freedom of speech, and assembly, and dismantling what the Founding Fathers built in the 1790s: a system of divided power ensuring no one holds too much of it. That’s exactly what Trump wants,” Sanders said.

Whether Sanders and his allies succeed remains to be seen—it’s a struggle that will take years. Meanwhile, the same type of politician stands behind Marine Le Pen and other far-right figures across powerful Western nations. Their goal is to defeat what they label as the "left"—even though the left has for decades focused on everything but working-class rights.

In France, the next round of the battle is Le Pen’s appeal—and then the 2027 presidential election. Even if her conviction is upheld, that doesn’t mean she can’t support a candidate. Those who believe the trial has made her a martyr say the verdict is the perfect way for someone close to her to win the election and for RN to form the next government.

After the trial? Perhaps another rebranding of the party that brings together discontented French people from across the ideological spectrum. If Martin Luther King has become Marine Le Pen’s inspiration, why shouldn’t her party become palatable to those who once rejected it? Donald Trump proved in just eight years that even your greatest enemies can become your allies. That was the price he paid to be accepted by the political establishment—and by American society.

The article was previously published on PISjournal.net.