How French Elites’ Lawfare Campaign Against Le Pen Could Backfire

Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin, March 24, 2017. Photo by The Russian Presidential Press and Information Office

The globalist elites of France are terrified Marine Le Pen will be elected president, and they are using every trick of lawfare (legal warfare, of the type being used against Donald Trump here in the United States) to stop her. But, explains John Keiger in The Spectator, removing Le Pen from ballots might backfire on the globalists by empowering her next in line, Jordan Bardella. Keiger writes:

At first, French elites haughtily dismissed the Rassemblement National and its voters. Then they were in denial about its rise. Now they are scrambling to block its path to victory in 2027 by all manner of subterfuge.

Marine Le Pen, the leader of the RN and front-runner in the 2027 presidential election, will go on trial this October, with other RN party members, for the misuse of European parliamentary funds. Whereas members of Macron’s coalition were recently found guilty of similar misdemeanors, in the case of Le Pen the stakes are particularly high: a likely guilty verdict will see her declared ineligible for political office and thus eliminated from the presidential race.

To this day the elimination of political opponents and rivals through the weaponization of judicial investigation has been a feature of every presidential election since Pompidou’s presidency in 1969. The most egregious example, the elimination from the 2017 presidential race of the front-runner François Fillon for being under investigation following allegations of embezzlement, still awaits an appeal decision.

But in this case, the RN’s political opponents and cultural elites have held back from gloating for the simple reason that Marine Le Pen’s disqualification will see her replaced by the even more popular young and articulate Jordan Bardella, the unblemished party president likely to trounce Macron’s party in the June European elections. Worse still, opinion polls suggest that in the event of an RN candidate winning the presidential vote, the party will sweep the board in the legislative elections that follow, giving it a substantial working majority.

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