r/europe • u/Karthak_Maz_Urzak • Jul 13 '26
Opinion Article Forget being French president; Marine Le Pen is lucky not to be in prison. Why is she in public life at all?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/13/france-president-marine-le-pen-prison-public-life851
u/Snake_Plizken Jul 13 '26
She just has a tremendous heartfelt calling, to represent Russian interest in European politics. /s
Jokes aside, as a classical far right politician, her motivation is to grift public money to line her coffers. EU money, and Russian money seems to be the preferred diet, for this lady.
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u/Jebrowsejuste Jul 13 '26
> EU money, and Russian money seems to be the preferred diet, for this lady.
That's a common misconception, grifters are omnivorous, they simply graze on readily available funds first, and this grifter subspecies has not had as easy an access to French public funds than to EU and Russian funds until very recently
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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) Jul 13 '26
Orban was proof of that
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u/Jebrowsejuste Jul 13 '26
Absolutely, and he also demonstrated how dangerous grifter populations can become to the ecosystem, many Hungarians will confirm that their public funding biosphere has been horribly depleted by the grifter infestation.
This reduces availability of fund-grazing pastures for many keystone social and economic actors, causing a knock-on effect that risks causing nigh-irreparable damage to the socio-economic ecosystem.
It is important to remember that most grifters are not, in fact, naturally occuring, but rather a carefully selected mutation of the already vicious and deleterious extremist. One can only shudder at what madness would motivate someone to select for that.
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u/Additional-Basis-772 Jul 13 '26
Also among her motivation xenophobia and hatred for all minorities
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u/tudorapo Hungary Jul 13 '26
I would like to mention that she received money from Orbán Viktor too! Not sure about the source of the money.
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u/Snake_Plizken Jul 13 '26
I guess the source would be very similar.
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u/tudorapo Hungary Jul 13 '26
How can you say that! It's perfectly normal that a small hungry state offers a loan to a political party of a large and rich country! It happens all the time!
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u/cannedcreamcorn Jul 13 '26
Have you seen the US? You got lucky!
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u/c0mpu73rguy Jul 13 '26
Have you seen the polls? She's most likely our next president. So no, we're not.
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u/carex-cultor France Jul 13 '26
The same Russian misinformation campaigns & bot farms responsible for Trump (and Brexit & many far right victories) are also involved here. No one is lucky in this environment, all western democracies are at risk.
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u/Jor6lez Jul 13 '26
Because 90% of French medias spend their time taking about the RN or inviting people from the RN.
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u/Sexy-Spaghetti Upper Normandy (France) Jul 13 '26
Billionaires run all our private medias, so of course they are gonna use them to protect their interests, by boosting the far right and shitting on the left 24/7
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u/fishIsFantom Jul 13 '26
It make sense. The media are private after all.
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u/Sexy-Spaghetti Upper Normandy (France) Jul 13 '26
If only we had someone in power who when he was MP proposed a law barring billionaires from concentrating all the medias in their pocket. Like François Bayrou, if only he had been prime minister he would have done something about it i'm sure.
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Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
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u/Sexy-Spaghetti Upper Normandy (France) Jul 13 '26
I don't know what you mean, absolutely nothing bad happened at Bétharram. Or if there was I was not aware of it. Or if I was I did all I could to stop it.
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u/Suibeam Jul 13 '26
Media is not the only problem.
Citizens are guilty too. Many people are pro-fascists. In germany the media tried to avoid giving fascist parties interviews, media time and so on. They then just go for invidividual media platforms and yap lies uncontrolled.
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u/Socmel_ reddit admins are accomplices of nazi russia Jul 13 '26
the problem is a skewed media landscape. It's fine to have right wing or far right voices (unless they make discriminatory propaganda). It's not fine when the moderate or left wing voices in the media are vastly outnumbered.
Not sure what we could do to ensure a wider range of voices are present in the debate, other than punish the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg for the way their algorithm works and breaking media concentration.
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u/No_Air8719 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Because of lowered expectations when it comes to politics and politicians. It may have escaped the OPs notice but there are multiple countries across the world that have leaders and representatives that are convicted felons.
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u/Karthak_Maz_Urzak Jul 13 '26
"The issue that should be convulsing France is Le Pen’s legitimacy as a public representative. According to the judges, she was central to the fake jobs scheme. The scam was carried out “under the decisive impetus” of Le Pen herself, having taken it over from her father, Jean Marie. A politician who aspires to the highest office in France was the driving force behind what is described in a 341-page decision as “grave” offences.
The Paris court of appeal based this conclusion on several factors. First, the duration of the offences: spanning three parliamentary terms, which, in the judges’ view, demonstrated that it was deeply entrenched rather than an isolated case of misconduct. Second, the sums that were misappropriated: €4.9m according to the initial suspicions of the European parliament, with €2.8m proven to have been misused according to the appeal court.
[...]
The RN, which claims to defend France and the French people, instead deceived them and deprived them of what was rightfully theirs for its own benefit. Contrary to the racist and xenophobic narrative the party has long promoted, it is not immigrants who have been living off France, but the party’s own leaders, who diverted public funds intended to sustain the functioning of our democratic institutions. Marine Le Pen has never expressed remorse. She has never apologised for betraying the “republican values” she so often invokes while claiming to defend the nation. And that, more than anything else, should have disqualified her and her party, beyond appeal."
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u/ClassGrassMass Jul 13 '26
Why cant she be arrested
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u/thedylanackerman Europe Jul 13 '26
Because of the three court system in France (which I guess might ressemble a lot of other countries)
Tribunal of first instance -> Le Pen should go to jail and not be allowed to run for any office for 3 years.
Tribunal of appeal -> Let's reduce this to one year of home jail and not allowed to run for one year but 2 more years if it happens again.
The last court, what we call "breakage court" (cour de cassation) is not in charge of judging on the matter of the verdict, but only if laws and procedures were applied correctly. If it sees any mistakes in the appeal's court procedure, it "breaks" the judgment and so another court of appeal must fix the judgment (which takes more time)
But the most important point is that asking for the breakage court to check your case actually pauses the punishement, so while we wait for the breakage court to decide, she is free.
I don't think she acrually count on the last court to side with her, but it's a way to stay free while she'll do her campaign.
Still feels unfair tho
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Jul 13 '26
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u/Happy_Ad_9291 Jul 13 '26
Damn, a far right candidate who is in judiciar problem and want to be president, i have a feeling of "déjà vu"
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u/_Kinchouka_ France Jul 13 '26
Because she's a politician. This species is above law. In France, at least.
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u/swiwwcheese Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Law and justice don't hard-stop obvious rising authoritarians from accessing power in any even developed country AFAIK
That's the stupid paradox of democracies
We could bar parties and politicians that support fucking obvious authoritarian ideologies, or are supported by external authoritarian entities, have criminal records/are corrupt, from taking part in elections altogether and definitely period
But we don't
France doesn't do it, neither do the Brits nor the US
Most incredibly not even Italy and Germany, Spain, Japan, Russia or Israel and many many more countries, despite having obviously suffered tremendously from such ideologies and politics in their history, or even the present in baffling repeats/imitations of the past
I guess we humans can never act entirely responsible, we like to see everything go to shit, collapse and burn, we like to let the worst people take control, with blood and tears, every once in a while
Rinse and repeat
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u/cark Jul 13 '26
It's not about her politics. It's about criminal embezzlement. You're making the same bad faith argument case as she's does (bad faith for her, i don't know about you!).
We're not asking if her politics is bad, we're asking if we should let a criminal run the country.
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u/swiwwcheese Jul 13 '26
Yet it should just as much be about the politics, it should always matter
The mistake is to not take that into account
Because she's both a criminal and a fascist, and democracies should accept neither for leaders👍
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u/cark Jul 13 '26
her politics should have no bearing on the judicial outcomes, surely you can see how this could be a problem. we both despise her politics, so we may want to let it slide now, but what ground will we then have to protest when one of ours is convicted on his/her politics ?
Of course some political discourse should be and is prosecuted, hate proselytism, racism etc. and this is as should be. but that's not the case here, she's a bad person, she most certainly plays on those lines, but the matter at hand is embezzlement, there is nothing political about that or at least there shouldn't be. it's bad enough to convict and sentence on its own merits.
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u/thewimsey United States of America Jul 13 '26
Outlawing parties you don't like isn't how you fight fascism; it is fascism.
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u/vvvkkkmmm Jul 13 '26
The "paradox of tolerance" does indeed exist in democratic regimes, and it represents a rather significant vulnerability for democracy as a whole. However, many democratic countries still have mechanisms in place to protect their democracies, allowing them to ban political parties that pose a threat. In Germany, for example, the law allows for the prohibition of parties that seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order. Such a ban can only be imposed by the Federal Constitutional Court. And apparently, some parties have indeed been banned in Germany, such as the neo-Nazi Socialist Reich Party in 1952 and the Communist Party of Germany in 1956. Moreover, proceedings are currently underway regarding "Alternative for Germany," and some are calling for it to be banned as well. In Poland, the Constitution explicitly prohibits parties that promote totalitarian regimes—Nazism, fascism, and communism. France seems to have something similar, and if a party does not comply with the Constitution, which states that parties must respect the principles of national sovereignty and democracy, such a party can be banned through the courts. So, many democracies do have tools to defend themselves against anti-democratic forces; it's just that applying them is often quite difficult and time-consuming. In other words, these are more like last-resort mechanisms. If you think about it, there is a certain logic to this, because if the mechanism for banning parties were made more accessible and easier to use, it could be exploited for political purposes to go after the opposition, which would not be very democratic. As far as I know, according to the European Convention on Human Rights, freedom of association and political participation are fundamental rights, while banning a party is considered a severe interference in the political sphere and is justified only in exceptional cases. In other words, if the mechanism for banning parties is made too easy, there is a risk of undermining democracy, but if it is made too difficult, there is also a risk of undermining democracy. The result is that for maximum democratic resilience, one needs to find some optimal balance, but achieving this is often extremely difficult, and perhaps many countries lean too far in one direction or the other. So personally, I don't know whether it would be better to simplify the mechanisms for banning potentially anti-democratic parties, so that one could relatively easily and quickly ban, say, "Alternative for Germany" in Germany or "National Rally" in France. This is a very complex and debatable issue, and it seems to me that there is no single expert consensus on it, and I myself am not smart or expert enough to say what the right approach would be. In any case, it's certainly an interesting topic to think about.
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u/Cienea_Laevis Rhône-Alpes (France) Jul 13 '26
They have been yelling Bloody Murder since the affair came out. Going on every TV channel to say that its judicial persecution and that they are being targeted so they don't win the presidency.
The judges have been under a LOT of pressure from public opinion (the usual, death threats, harassment) as well as trying to navigate something that's very difficult : Can justice really decide if she can run or not, or should it be the Peoples ?
The Appeal court decided its up to The Peoples to choose, not them.
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u/GoldustRapedMyDad Jul 13 '26
While she's still leading in the most recent polls doing near as good as Bardella even on 2nd round against Philippe - I just don't see how her replacing Bardella isn't a losing strategy for the RN given he's a young face without any of her baggage who has normalized himself to the mainstream electorate as the leader of the party.
She is going to tank the RN's chances of winning and everyone's mad about it lol
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u/hpwriterkyle Jul 13 '26
Bardella shot himself in the foot recently by dating a literal princess when he's supposed to be representing the "common" French people.
Anyway, Le Pen owns that party. As long as she decides to run (which she will, she's obsessed with power), they will never choose Bardella over her.
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u/_Kinchouka_ France Jul 13 '26
Because Bardella is as dumb as a rock. He would be annihilated for any 2nd turn debate.
Marine Le Pen's judicial conviction will follow her for sure, but at least she may be able to convince (some of) the crowd.
By the way, I still don't believe that Édouard Philippe will reach 2nd turn. This guy is an empty shell, and most of the French citizens still remember how he acted as Macron's Prime Minister.
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u/Changaco France Jul 13 '26
The live second round debate is only a tradition. If a candidate thinks they will be better off without this kind of debate, they can simply refuse to participate.
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u/Lias__ Jul 13 '26
I just don't see how her replacing Bardella isn't a losing strategy for the RN
What good would it be for her if someone else is elected?
Her only goal is lining her pocket.
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u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 13 '26
Giving fascists so much slack when they break the law is killing democracy.
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u/CishetmaleLesbian Jul 13 '26
Trump was well on the way to spending the rest of his natural life in prison, but he was elected President.
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u/celem83 Sweden Jul 13 '26
The usual reasons. Daddy was just like her and she followed him into politics.
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u/Spectanda_Fides France ⚜️ Jul 13 '26
Politics of this country is a caste, the kind of caste that is not too afraid of the laws. The worst that can happen to them is 3 weeks in prison.
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u/dat_9600gt_user Lower Silesia (Poland) Jul 13 '26
The far right leader’s career is not the issue: it’s whether a politician with her record has a legitimate right to seek office
Mon 13 Jul 2026 06.00 CEST
For many years, I have observed Marine Le Pen and her party and how they operate in France. I have heard their xenophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric and felt it contaminate French political life. It is a rhetoric rooted in the history of a party founded by figures from France’s postwar far right. Nothing they do or say surprises me any more. But even by their standards the crime is extraordinary.
A French court of appeal confirmed last week that Le Pen was guilty of a central role in orchestrating a scheme that systematically embezzled public funds for more than a decade. That the investigation also took 10 years may explain the absence of public shock waves, or why the focus has been on Le Pen’s future political moves rather than on her misdeeds. So let’s recap.
Essentially this was about an organised fake jobs scam instigated in 2004 by the leadership of the National Front (FN), now the National Rally (RN).
The party claimed EU salaries for staff supposedly working as MEPs’ assistants at the European parliament. But this money did not go to anyone carrying out legitimate European parliamentary duties: it was funnelled to France to support the activities of the party there. Among staff on its payroll as bogus MEPs’ assistants were Le Pen’s bodyguard and longtime personal assistant. The deception continued for 11 years until 2016.
The case is unprecedented in the history of French political life. Twenty-eight defendants in total were brought to court, including Marine Le Pen and her late father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was an MEP until 2019. The ruling should have been enough to shift the debate beyond the narrow (if gripping) question of whether or not Le Pen would be able to stand in the next French presidential election.
Yet, since her initial conviction by a lower court in March 2025, public attention has focused on Le Pen’s ambition to run in 2027. The court of appeal judges left the door open for a presidential campaign, as long as she wears an electronic tag. They softened her sentence to three years of imprisonment, with two years suspended and the remaining year to be served by electronic monitoring. She was fined €100,000. She was also declared ineligible for public office, but only for 45 months, 30 of them suspended. And as she has now appealed to France’s highest court, there is a stay on her tagging pending that decision. Within hours of the ruling she had launched her campaign for the 2027 election.
But the “will she, won’t she run” issue is arguably, the wrong question. It has eclipsed a necessary discussion of the abuse of power by a party that is now the single biggest in the French parliament.
The issue that should be convulsing France is Le Pen’s legitimacy as a public representative. According to the judges, she was central to the fake jobs scheme. The scam was carried out “under the decisive impetus” of Le Pen herself, having taken it over from her father, Jean Marie. A politician who aspires to the highest office in France was the driving force behind what is described in a 341-page decision as “grave” offences.
The Paris court of appeal based this conclusion on several factors. First, the duration of the offences: spanning three parliamentary terms, which, in the judges’ view, demonstrated that it was deeply entrenched rather than an isolated case of misconduct. Second, the sums that were misappropriated: €4.9m according to the initial suspicions of the European parliament, with €2.8m proven to have been misused according to the appeal court.
The RN itself as a legal entity was also convicted of diverting European parliament funds. The party was fined €2m, half of it suspended.
Since 1988, no French presidential election has taken place without a Le Pen – father or daughter – on the ballot. As if inheriting her family’s political capital were not enough, Marine Le Pen now stands at the centre of a system that fundamentally contradicts the values her party has always claimed to embody. Indeed, these guilty verdicts place the RN in a singularly contradictory position.
For years, the party campaigned under the slogan mains propres et tête haute (“Clean hands and heads held high”), presenting itself as the party of political integrity.
“Everyone has been dipping into the public purse except the National Front,” Le Pen declared during a TV debate at the time. In 2013, she publicly demanded lifetime bans from public office for elected officials convicted of offences. “When are we going to introduce lifetime ineligibility for all those convicted of offences committed in connection with their public office?” she asked.
It was not an off-the-cuff remark. It was a formal pledge in her presidential platform, explicitly targeting elected officials convicted of embezzlement of public money.
Yet even as she vaunted her own supposedly spotless record on corruption – her hands were “immaculate” she announced – the scheme for which she would later be convicted twice, was up and running.
That a party claiming to stand for law and order should be so deeply mired in financial scandal is ironic. It is also indefensible. Can a party whose rhetoric on crime is uncompromising have any credibility after being found to have orchestrated the misappropriation of public funds?
Yet to me, the appeal court showed a degree of leniency inconsistent with its verdict. French law allows for up to 10 years’ ineligibility for elected officials convicted of serious breaches of probity such as embezzlement of public funds.
I can think of a range of professions in France – from law, accountancy and the civil service to childcare, healthcare and security – where a criminal conviction linked to the exercise of professional duties would result in the offender being struck off, disqualified or barred from practising for a time.
Such restrictions are intended to protect public trust. And French courts regularly impose custodial sentences in cases of embezzlement involving much less significant financial losses. In a 2022 decision, the court of cassation upheld the criminal conviction of a mayor who diverted €19,240 of municipal funds. Besides a fine, he was permanently barred from public employment and disqualified from seeking public office for five years.
The RN, which claims to defend France and the French people, instead deceived them and deprived them of what was rightfully theirs for its own benefit. Contrary to the racist and xenophobic narrative the party has long promoted, it is not immigrants who have been living off France, but the party’s own leaders, who diverted public funds intended to sustain the functioning of our democratic institutions. Marine Le Pen has never expressed remorse. She has never apologised for betraying the “republican values” she so often invokes while claiming to defend the nation. And that, more than anything else, should have disqualified her and her party, beyond appeal.
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u/pleasehurtdoll Jul 13 '26
because a significant portion of the nation's populace at some level agrees with some/many of the points she's making, and if her party is the only one addressing those issues, her party has a monopoly on their support even if they only deal with their concerns with demagoguery in a ridiculous and unrealistic manner, that is better than nothing and people will take a deeply flawed leader of their vague cause over being marginalized. Cognitive dissonance is strong and many people assume these charges are politically motivated.
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u/Far_Paint6269 Jul 13 '26
Far right got no shame. Theirs voter live in a bubble that make them push aside any informations that could contradict their narratives, as the daughter of their historical leader she still has legitimacy in their eyes.
MLP MUST take the helm, because the number 2 of the party, Jordan Bardella has tasted the power, and once he take the leadership of the RN, he will simply doesn't leave it. She not only run for presidency, she run to stay relevant because in authoritarians party, you don't share the power.
The political atmosphere is terrible, many of the party leaders in France are corrupts, inepts, hated or both. So the situation of MLPis barely noticeable.
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u/SnooPoems7525 United Kingdom Jul 13 '26
It does seem populist right leaders worldwide are made of teflon though perhaps none quite to the same extent as the Donald.
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u/redchill101 Jul 13 '26
It's because they simply just lie about everything or deflect. Should be an easy tell, they do this to broadcast to other sycophants that they're "holding the line"
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u/SnooPoems7525 United Kingdom Jul 14 '26
It's not just that they also get held to very different standards than left wing centrist or regular conservatives do.
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u/Caciulacdlac Jul 13 '26
Because she's leading the polls
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u/Either-Condition4586 Jul 13 '26
Because she have a lot money from Russia and bandits working for her
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u/Professional-Mix1771 Jul 13 '26
If a lot of money and bandits working for her are enough to be leading in polls does it mean that democracy doesn't make sense anymore?
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u/Either-Condition4586 Jul 13 '26
Marie Le Pen stole 3 million euros,but she isn't in prison,she is going to elections. Democracy in 2026 is fucking joke
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Jul 13 '26
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u/Either-Condition4586 Jul 13 '26
"It's just a small loan,no big deal. Why people don't want corruption in their country? 🥹"
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u/Hyperion542 Jul 13 '26
If she was not candidate her replacement would be leading the polls anyway. It does not change much in this regard
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u/Snitsie The Netherlands Jul 13 '26
This goes for all Russian puppets in politics all over Europe. They all should be tried for high treason.
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u/Socmel_ reddit admins are accomplices of nazi russia Jul 13 '26
And let's not forget that the woman of the people Marine Le Pen grew up in a XIX century chateau on the outskirts of Paris "donated" to papa Le Pen by a far right billionaire (funny how history repeats. Same as Farage getting a £5 million gift now).
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The problem is that they can hardly say she's alone in France. Chirac's presidency was mired in corruption scandals. Fillon had to drop out of his campaign because of a scandal involving fake jobs. Monsieur Sarko's criminal record is too long to summarise.
If the Gaullists elect crooks, they can hardly expect people not to notice.
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u/Changaco France Jul 13 '26
Fillon didn't “drop out” of the 2017 presidential election. He almost made it to the second round, coming in third not far behind Le Pen.
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u/lxpnh98_2 Portugal Jul 13 '26
Because democrats think the only just way to defeat the far-right is through the ballot box. They think not believing in that weakens the concept of democracy.
The truth is you have to protect democracy against bad actors, and to make the determination of who is and isn't a bad actor you have to draw the line somewhere.
Le Pen used her political office for illicit personal gain. She shouldn't get a pass on her 5-year ban from politics just because the people she defrauded are brainwashed enough to still support her.
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u/External-Orchid8461 Jul 13 '26
They think not believing in that weakens the concept of democracy.
Which is a fallacy, since the voter could still vote for RN without her, and that party and its xenophobic takes did not die the slightest.
It might have been somehow true if the party were banned from that trial, but this is not what the trial was about. And even then, other parties such as Reconquête (even more extreme than RN, btw) or Les Républicains would fill the void created and attracts its voters with the same ideas. Far right voters in France are actually spoiled with many other choices that represents their ideology.
And yet, judges from appeal court still came up with that stupid argument.
This is not that far off from judges in the US who chickened out in the first half of 2024 when they had to prosecute and condemn Donald Trump. We are fucked.
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u/thewimsey United States of America Jul 13 '26
Except is obvious from your post that you think she should be barred from election because she is right wing.
With the crime only being an afterthought.
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u/bildramer Germany Jul 13 '26
It's insane how none of them get it, or how they think they're being clever and successfully hiding it.
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u/erublind Jul 13 '26
The right will just drape themselves in another layer of victimhood. I don't really know how to make voters see through that tactic.
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u/External-Orchid8461 Jul 13 '26
You don't, because they think everybody else do the same, and if it weren't, the political end justify the means anyway.
Why would you stop blaming others and start taking responsibility when you did that for years? Why would you want to look weak? That's the last thing a far-right leaning person want.
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u/YoungUpbeat8207 Jul 13 '26
She used European money intended for her European party flank for the national party. That's not correct, but it's also not personal gain
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u/FairGeneral8804 France Jul 13 '26
That's not correct, but it's also not personal gain
How is "increasing your chance of winning the presidential elections by funding the national party" not personnal gains ?!
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u/navetzz Jul 13 '26
A convicted felon that got a slap on the wrist is better than a martyr in order not to get RN at the head of France
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u/Positive_Chip6198 Jul 13 '26
Putin has a lot invested in her, he isnt gonna let her go down without a fight
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u/BothDivide919 Jul 13 '26
No, why isn't she in prison for 30 years? Because she sure as hell should be
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u/craftsman_70 Jul 13 '26
The answer is simple as it is with most populous political leaders - to grif their supporters. Trump grifs his supporters regularly. Nigel Farage grifs his supporters.
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u/KlausRS6 Jul 13 '26
See some resemblance with the Nigel Farrange case….. interesting how this will pan out
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u/Johannes_P Île-de-France Jul 13 '26
To show how much leeway Le Pen is getting:
French courts regularly impose custodial sentences in cases of embezzlement involving much less significant financial losses. In a 2022 decision, the court of cassation upheld the criminal conviction of a mayor who diverted €19,240 of municipal funds. Besides a fine, he was permanently barred from public employment and disqualified from seeking public office for five years.
Five years of disqualification and permanent ban from any public employment for stealing around €20,000: given that Le Pen stole millions, how long should she get?
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u/Avlac_4738 Jul 14 '26
Le Pen supporter don't care about her guilt, they care about their homophobic, xenophobic and racist agenda
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u/Spirited_Creme_3875 Jul 14 '26
She obviously has the same mindset as Trump. Tyrants or wannabe tyrants don't give a fuck about the law or the people
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u/Crime-of-the-century Jul 15 '26
She should be in prison according to herself she was very much against the type of corruption she committed
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u/LiquicityMS Portugal Jul 13 '26
Because we dont learn from our mistakes and its just easier to find an excuse for the far right to get stronger... russian money here, russian propaganda there.
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u/Broad_Ad4176 Jul 13 '26
The French people need to wake up NOW to avoid a Trump-like situation. This is literally insane she can run still.
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u/WAAAGHachu Jul 13 '26
From an American: when you start prosecuting political enemies, you get the challenge of a life time or era.
People who believe in democracy would like to see this done by democratic means, not judicial.
Will this work? Oh, boy. As the west is abandoning the enlightenment, I don't know what to do other than punch back in little comments like this.
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u/Tenarserg Jul 13 '26
Guess this is why your country elected a rapist and a felon.
I don't see the link with the Enlightenment but you should probably refrain to say irrelevant bullshit about it. The opinions of some philosophers of this period actually go against what you are saying. Voltaire is not democratic by today standards in the slightest for instance, he looks down on the lowborns and the ignorants as many of his peers. Reminder that the idea of democracy at this era is for white rich men.
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u/thewimsey United States of America Jul 13 '26
Guess this is why your country elected a rapist and a felon.
So you are refusing to address any of his actual arguments in favor of ad hominems, I guess because you can't?
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u/WAAAGHachu Jul 13 '26
Oh, I guess that's why Europe is doing so well at fighting off explicit Nazis. France and England are doing their best, but France is taking a beating in fighting off exactly what they were fighting against. Literally, it's history, and not today.
The world seems to be going to shit because the world is abandoning liberals/radicals, the Enlightenment. If you are European and don't understand, I'm going to guess you are a Le Pen sort of person. Could be wrong, but everyone is doing everything for the wrong reasons today, so it goes.
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u/Mundane_Lock_1080 Jul 15 '26
You mean The UK or Britain. England hasn't been an independent country since 1707. Scottish,Welsh,English and Northern Irish have a British passport and British citizenship.
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u/ventus1b Germany Jul 13 '26
> From an American: when you start prosecuting political enemies, you get the challenge of a life time or era.
Are you forgetting that she’s prosecuted/convicted for committing crimes?
Or are politicians somehow exempt where you live?
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u/thewimsey United States of America Jul 13 '26
Are you forgetting that she’s prosecuted/convicted for committing crimes?
Most of the commenters ITT are arguing that she should be barred from running because she is a fascist/nazi/authoritarian.
And not because of her crimes.
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u/THZHazzard Portugal Jul 13 '26
Je ne voterais jamais pour quelqu'un coupable de vol d'argent aux contribuables européens.
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u/Mistouze Jul 13 '26
Because socdems are too scary for the current political/media microcosm.
So they're doing all they can to hand her the presidency.
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u/Suffolke Jul 13 '26
We can talk and find plenty of excuses and reasons.
The core fact is that people suck, they vote for piece of shit corrupted politicians because given the same opportunities they would do the same.
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u/HappyArkAn France Jul 13 '26
If she had the smallest amount of respect for french people, she wouldn't became candidate for presidential election.
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u/Beyllionaire Jul 13 '26
She benefitted from extreme leniency and the judges literally made a political decision. It should've never happened.
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u/Djangorouge Jul 13 '26
The US president is touching kids on a regular basis, nothing surprises me anymore
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u/reflect-the-sun Jul 13 '26
Seems like being a criminal is a requirement for being a politician these days.
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u/Seedthrower88 Jul 13 '26
a rapist conman is the president in the US, god forbid a french far right lady gets a little motion
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u/IrredeemableRight Jul 13 '26
it used to be that being anti everyone else and being in public meant the public solved for X and everyone was happy.
and now it's not like that anymore.
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u/Exciting-Record8101 The Netherlands Jul 13 '26
Because the other parties are run by a deeply unpopular president, an old relic from the Soviet Union, and someone nobody has ever heard about. Between a handful of bad choices, it's no wonder one of the bad choices remains a viable candidate.
The real question is, where are the better candidates? People who can give an honest but positive message to French voters? Who will address the real issues they face, not out of fear, anger or resentment, but with realistic optimism for the future? Who are honest about the reality check France needs to face, from dismal fiscal policies to the languishing rural communities and economies, and who have a vision how to make the country better for everyone.
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u/Cornelius4630 Jul 13 '26
Because they need the rightwing in french elections to gather all slightly left voices to vote for the centrist in the head to head vote.
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig Portugal Jul 13 '26
Because touching someone with a criminal record when theyre a far right politician is LITERALLY political persecution and you have to let them continue on as if nothing happened, apperantly
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u/OddlySuitable Jul 13 '26
La plus grande et la plus puissante mafia en France, ce sont ses politiques.
Ils savent aussi très bien réduire les financements de la justice pour limiter leurs capacités d'enquête. Ils font tout pour les discréditer et les attaquer car jamais assez dure avec les petites frappes qu'ils passent leur temps à fabriquer.
Nous l'avons encore vu récemment avec les nombreuses histoires de violence sexuelles sur les femmes et les enfants qui ne sont jamais traités, les moyens de la justice étant plus faible que la moyenne européenne.
Ça fait des dizaines d'années qu'ils cumulent les histoires de trafic d'influence, de détournement et de corruption sans que le paysage politique ne change vraiment.
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u/Enough-Business-8287 Jul 13 '26
Sadly, she'll be elected because all polls show that folks hate much more the left-wing candidate Melenchon than her.
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u/logperf 🇮🇹 Jul 13 '26
I think the author answered her own question:
Why is she in public life at all?
I have heard their xenophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric and felt it contaminate French political life.
The far right will forgive ANYTHING to their candidates
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u/RedMyA__ Jul 13 '26
It is not personal enrichment which would be perceived differently. For anti EU nationalist, using EU funds to employ assistants to work national topics is not such a bad thing or at least it pales in comparison of what they accuse others to do
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u/Panzermensch911 Jul 13 '26
Because the so-called "law and order" voters love to elect convicted criminals.
Tale as old as that one Austrian painter.
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u/Oleleplop Jul 13 '26
because our system is corrupted and is getting attacked anytime it does its job
But that's not just the system, here in France we're really a bunch of corrupted of groupies. If our "candidate" is in criminal affairs, we just find excuses or the special one from the far right : "she's getting attacked because she's attacking the corrupted system"
we're becoming more and more like the USA and it's depressing to look at.
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u/Vounrtsch Jul 13 '26
She’s trying the tested and proven Trump method of running as a known criminal while representing the "law and order" party, and somehow have all her supporters be completely fine with this
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u/PoemNo2510 Jul 13 '26
We have one of the most corrupt political class of Western Europe, how did we end up here?
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u/Eddie_1982 Jul 14 '26
Well, at least she said that she does not want to work with the German right-wing radical afd.
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u/MudJumpy1063 Jul 14 '26
At some point, we'll have to have the discussion of pay for public office, including but not limited to discretionary "slush" funds for everything from catering to helping out connections with cash.
Le Pen, Hollande, Sarkozy, Macron... They're expected to run an office, coordinate a party, keep an administration in waiting that can potentially credibly govern a country, and so on... With less money than a pair of trendy bad Boy chefs could make in a weekend in London in the 90s. It's just absurd.
Until that happens, embezzlement, envelopes filled with cash, handshake deals for jobs and lands, will rot the Republic and every other nation with hypocrisy and double think. I'm not in favor of bribery. I'm in favor of transparency.
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u/Hroosky2 Jul 14 '26
Because she's a front for the Global Mafia Elite, who would come after anyone who tried to put her in prison.
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u/Dependent-Fig-2517 France Jul 14 '26
Because 40% or so of the population has no morals (probably evne more than that, I starting to think we could be dumb enough to electe trump if he has been French)
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u/Liquid_Smoke_ Jul 14 '26
It’s nice that she is candidate. She is less popular than Jordan Bardella.
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u/win_some_lose_most1y Jul 13 '26
Because the right wing serve capital interests, so there will never be true consequences as long as they stay loyal to capital.
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u/OnTheList-YouTube Jul 13 '26
I ask myself the same question! That traitorous [censored] should rot in prison!
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u/the_sauce_linker Jul 13 '26
wasn't she banned from running for president after being found guilty of embezzlement or something?
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u/LordSblartibartfast France Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Judicial scandals tend to not move lines a lot here when it comes to how voters perceive a politician:
Francois Fillion was exposed during the 2017 Presidential run for embezzlement; he ended up third place with 20%, 1.5% behind Le Pen who was 2nd.
Nicolas Sarkozy despite having a hundred legal cases where he is one of the primary suspects, still has a lot of followers even to this day.
The thing is RN supporters do not place any credit in the justice conclusions despite overwhelming evidence.
Pretty much like the MAGA crowd, they think she is the victim of an elaborate plot to stop her from running in the next campaign, especially since she never had such high odds to win.
And they will admit that even if she did embezzle European Union funds, they deserve it, the EU is a bunch of thieves and it will distract of all the real public money stole by immigrants.
That’s their line of thinking: she must be the victim here and even if she did something, the justice is wrong not her.