World News: Marine Le Pen Faces Prison Sentence After French Court Conviction

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 01 April 2025 06:43

Written by Olivier Longhi

French politician Marine Le Pen, the far right party leader, has been found guilty of embezzlement, and sentenced to a four year prison term, and been barred from seeking political office for the next five years.

If the future of Marine Le Pen seems to be darkening, to the benefit of her rivals, it is also the image of the far-right party that suffers from a conviction that alters the reputation of probity and exemplarity of an organization that has now fallen into the field of vulgar banality.

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By sentencing, among other sentences, Marine Le Pen to five years of ineligibility, the judicial court of

Paris, has contributed, against its will, to the strategy of victimization, but not only, of the Rassemblement National. The cries of outrage uttered by the deputy from the North thus added to the politico-judicial psychodrama that was played out before the eyes of stunned activists.

But after the crocodile tears, the question arises of the political future of the leader of the French far right. In the shadows, of course, Jordan Bardella can only rejoice at the court's decision, the conviction of Marine Le Pen, if confirmed on appeal, would open the doors to the presidential election, he who is favored by the polls, a reality that is not without irritating Marine Le Pen either.

Secondly, still assuming that the sentence is confirmed, it seems obvious that the political future of Jean-Marie Le Pen's heiress is heavily compromised both nationally and at the European level. However, regardless of all these elements, it is above all the image of the party and its discourse that are altered.

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Fraud and Embezzlement

The National Rally, which has been since its creation, and even before the birth of the National Front, the champion and thurifer of exemplarity and probity, falls, like all those it has denounced in the past, under the blows of fraud and embezzlement of public funds, European ones at that. Does this mean that the National Rally is a party like any other, at least from this point of view?

It will be up to each of us to form our own opinion, but, cynically speaking, this conviction and the fact that Marine Le Pen are accused of ultimately working to de-demonize a political party that has ended up sinking into banality. What will remain of the discourse of an organization that is more deleterious than fundamentally attractive?

In reality, not much, the party's xenophobic message, once again more repulsive than inciting, the weakness and vacuity of parliamentary work, in the Assembly or in the European Parliament, complete the sanctioning of a party whose specialty remains more to bark than to bite, to denounce than to act.

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In a sophistry that is admittedly broken and seasoned and which seduces voters who have lost their political and ideological bearings, the Rassemblement National has seen its credibility largely damaged to the point of losing its power of attraction. Some will argue, and rightly so, that the National Rally will continue to bring thousands of voters to its side, but the sentence pronounced sends it back to a form of banality that it wanted to fight with an alleged exemplarity that has now been challenged.

Having fallen into the vulgarity of political existence, in the same way as other parliamentary formations, the far-right party is decked out in the donkey's cap that others have worn before it. Shame on him!

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.