|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
[Want even more content from FPM? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more—now for just $3.99/month. Click here to sign up.]
Marine Le Pen was leading in the polls for the 2027 French presidential election, but that doesn’t matter anymore: on Monday, a judge in Paris found her guilty of misappropriating European Union funds. She has been sentenced to prison (although she will apparently not serve her sentence behind bars but by the practically equal humiliation of wearing an ankle bracelet, as if she were a career criminal whose whereabouts needed to be constantly monitored), a substantial fine, and most significantly of all, a ban on political activity for five years. That means that she can’t run for president in 2027. Not coincidentally, Le Pen is also the chief critic of France’s leftist political elites and their open borders policies.
Sound familiar? It should. It looks as if the French political establishment has succeeded where the American political establishment failed, although they both tried essentially the same tactic: framing their principal opponent for various crimes so that he or she would either be barred from running for president or rendered so noxious in the eyes of the voters that a once-appealing candidate became unelectable.
The American left managed to get Trump for an array of bogus crimes: misdemeanors elevated to felonies, especially for the occasion, and a liability judgment for sexual abuse based on the implausible and unsupported claims of a fantasist that required the extension of the statute of limitations to bring the case. Nevertheless, they didn’t succeed in getting him banned from running for president or imprisoned. In France, the authoritarian leftists have fared better. Le Pen has no right to appeal her sentence, which means that her political career is essentially over, and the French left can breathe easy for the foreseeable future.
Le Pen’s political career has been ended for supposed crimes that involved, according to a Monday report in The Spectator, “misusing European Union funds.” Yet “the judge accepted that there had been no personal enrichment on the part of Le Pen or her co-accused,” and ended her political career anyway because “a ‘system’ had been set up in 2009 that ran until 2016” that supposedly allowed Le Pen and other defendants to set about “subverting democracy.” The French leftist elites, you see, are saving “our democracy” by barring the main contender for the presidency from running for the office.
Once again: does this sound familiar? The Spectator adds: “Coming just two weeks after Cǎlin Georgescu was disqualified from running in the Romanian election, the judgment will also reinforce the impression among a growing number of Europeans that it is the EU elite subverting democracy.” No kidding, really? “Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out,” said the renowned ex-leftist David Horowitz, and here we are. The left is afraid that it can’t win elections anymore, and so we saw all the lawfare against Trump, and now they’ve eliminated the threat of Le Pen. This won’t be the last of the left’s undemocratic actions, either.
That’s because the political and cultural currents all over the West are moving away from the left. The march of the “progressives” (that is, those who want a massive federal state controlling every aspect of life) toward final victory and the imposition of authoritarian socialist rule seemed drearily inevitable just a few years ago, but now it is very much in doubt. Those who are unshakably convinced that they are right and righteous, however, are not inclined to give up power freely and willingly to those who will set about to dismantle the socialist edifices they have been assiduously building in Western Europe and North America for all these years.
They weren’t able to defeat Trump, but they are doing all they can now, as was to be expected, to block him from destroying the corrupt system they have put into place. And they’ve just succeeded in preventing Le Pen from carrying out similar reforms in France.
It isn’t all over for France, although it’s close. The Spectator observes that “Le Pen may be gone, but her party will probably benefit from this judgement. The anger of her 11 million voters is likely to go from simmering to seething in the days and weeks ahead. Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, reacted to the verdict by tweeting ‘Je Suis Marine.’ France may not have heard the last of that battle cry.”
Indeed. But the situation there is extremely dire. The mass migration, open borders policies that French President Emmanuel Macron has pursued for years have resulted in France, like Britain, Germany, Sweden, and other countries, being inundated with Muslim migrants, many of whom have no intention of assimilating or tolerating French culture. The leftist elites have eliminated the Le Pen threat, but they may find that they have bought for themselves a Pyrrhic victory: they will retain power in France, yet their policies have set their nation on the road to a day when there is no more France left to rule.
Actual punishment for right-wing criminals rather than making them President. Imagine that!
The French far-left are taking a page from the democrat playbook. Use the courts to destroy your political enemies. They did it to Ted Stevens in Alaska and Tom DeLay in Texas. Both were acquitted, but neither one ran for public office again. Mission accomplished. They tried doing it to Donald Trump, we all know how that turned out. Le Pen is being set-up over what will be revealed as a book-keeping error. As the French say “Se la vie”
This is not an action by the French far-left. It is by the authoritarian globalist elites and their judicial cronies.
Also this is not a book-keeping error, it is a deliberate diversion of funds but however it is standard practice in the EU.
Le Pen has been targeted and criminalised for doing what almost every political party in the EU has been doing. Using EU funds intended to pay the various political party employees for their work for the European Parliament specifically but have also used the funds to pay for party work in their home countries, which is illegal under EU laws. However this is part and parcel of the EU political landscape which has gone on unpunished until National Rally and Le Pen have risen in the polls and look like to win the presidency in 2027.
This could well backfire on the globalist elites with the National Rally picking up more even support increasing their poling up from today’s latest polls showing them at 37%. If Le Pen is out of the race Jordan Bardella should stand, He is young and has great support among disillusioned younger French voters. Interesting times.
It looks like a similar move by the “authoritarian globalist elites and their judicial cronies” is underway in Germany to remove AfD from the political arena. I expect that eventually both of these Stalinist moves by the elites will prompt a massive pushback by the citizens on both countries. It’s going to get messy, as these Stalinists will not give up power willingly through any democratic political process (which they have already subverted). They are executing a coup in both cases.
It is time for America to end her military and economic alliance with Britain and France.
I don’t know French, but I do know that it’s “c’est la vie” (“that’s life”).
Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent revolution inevitable. The French didn’t learn much from the last revolution.
This comment is not from the regular FPM commenter “Jeff Bargholz,” but instead an impostor using his name. To the impostor: we have banned your IP address from further commenting on the site for violating our rules.
Thanks. That person’s snarky negativism was annoying and infuriating to say the least. There’s nothing wrong with opposing views but not in the disparaging way that that person expresses it.
Please do the same to the imposter impersonating me as well, if you haven’t done so yet. It would be greatly appreciated.
I’m often amused by your pithy comments Geoff and often upvote them but sadly, looks like when it comes to politics, you are just another ignorant, TDS lefty. Shame really. But hey, I fully support you having an opinion, wrong or not!
Right out of a novel by Michel Hoeullebecq.
It’s questionable if France was ever a supposed “democracy.” Socialism isn’t exactly democracy and vice versa. It was always a matter of time before socialist countries shed the veneer of being benevolent democracies and expose themselves for they are and have always been: socialist tyrannies, aka,malevolent “neo-communists”
France just happens to be first in rubbing off enough of the veneer to expose what they are underneath. Germany will be next followed by the UK. Exigent circumstances (putting down the people who oppose the invasion and Islamization of their country) are forcing them to do it
The far right and the far left meet each other on the other side of the sphere.
The problem with the EU is that the bureaucrats are already tyrannical.
Worse than that, the people of the EU countries have become pusillanimous sheep, i.e., “sheeple.” They’re still enthralled with their landed aristocracy and have become willing victims of their own bureaucracy (i.e., they voted for it.)
The only way to deal with such people is to stand aside and let fate decide what happens to them. Fate has never been kind to the weak, ignorant and stupid (i.e., sheeple.)
I think the UK and Germany are already there.
For all intent and purposes, the UK is already an Islamic country. The British sheeple are preoccupied with kissing up to the monarchy, drinking pints and watching soccer and haven’t quite realized it yet.
We’re still waiting to see what happens when the Left and the Moslems come into conflict. After all, their ideologies are about as incompatible as could be. I’ve never grasped what the Leftists who do not reproduce expect to happen when the Moslems take over their countries with their rapid population growth. The Moslems are not about to convert to Leftism the way the weak Westerners did.
It’s interesting to notice that the most powerful Leftist regime in the world, China, has no qualms about brutally repressing Islam. I don’t see this as an option for the UK, France and Germany, though.
The leftist elites in France and their fellow travelers in the WEF, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other like-minded Islamists (the red-green alliance) need an appointment with the national razor. They are the new Jacobins, and they deserve a similar end if France is to be saved. It may be too late, given the numbers of high-birth-rate Muslims who have been let in and are taking over the country, burning or closing churches, killing priests, raping French women, erecting mosques, and filling the madrasas with future jihadis. It will be either the French Revolution 2.0 (if French citizens rise up in numbers) or the death of France as we have known it.
The truth is, the French are to cowardly to save their own country. Moreover, America should not do it for them. We’ve spilled enough blood via two world wars saving their sorry asses. No more.
If they won’t fight to save their country, culture and sorry asses then they deserve to go the way of the Romans and Mayans and other cultures that no longer exist. It’s not America’s job to save them from their own instincts.
One of the good things the French have done is getting Fed Up with those Climate Change Idiots blocking the Streets and their Dragging them out of the way
Stepping back and looking at the elites, one must wonder “What WERE they thinking? They brought in alligators for support and fed the “ right” to them not thinking that the alligators will be hungry tomorrow when the right is all eaten up.
Today throwing their right-wing enemies in jail, tomorrow getting thrown from rooftops by Islamists.
And the British can be counted on to keep a stiff upper lip while being tossed to their death…!!
Whom ever fails Soros and his Globalists ilk must be banished to the Amazon
The fact remains, she was found guilty of embezzlement of EU Funds, regardless.
That’s like Trump being found “guilty” of Alvin Bragg’s 34 counts of what? Supported by fake judge Merchan. But Merchan was too much of a Leftist pu$$y to throw Trump in jail.
Bragg has all the Attention Spam of a Housefly and memory span below a Turkey making the Turkey more Intelligent
Le Pen was as “guilty” of misconduct with EU funds as a significant number of others, however who else has been “convicted” other than Le Pen and National Rally? Of course nothing to do with Le Pen polling at 37% in potentail Presidential race.
“While the EU has never released a full accounting of all parliamentarians accused of the same misconduct as Le Pen was found guilty of, a 2023 report from the Follow the Money website found that between 2019 and 2022, 139 Members of European Parliament (MEPs), or around one in five members at the time, had been found to have broken the same rules, the Times of London noted on Tuesday.”
Marine Le Pen is an honorable woman in every way and her Supporters love her! Every Election, the Euro-Trash Elites find a way to stop her. Her huge ‘Trumpian’ Rallies scare them to death, God forbid the actual good people of France Rise UP and demand FREEDOM! Macron is a dismal failure and a fool. Why aren’t the French taking to the streets and raising hell? JE SUIS MARINE !!!!
Whether it is Marine Le Pen or the AfD, the left’s slogan is, “If you can’t beat them, ban them!”
The USA must never rescue France again. Leave them to fend for themselves.
How about helping French citizens to rescue France from the grip of the Stalinists (i.e., the current elites who have enabled the invasion and ascendancy of the Islamists)? Nothing good for France or the U.S. will come of their seizure of permanent power. Look how long the reign of terror has extended in China, the Soviet Union/Russia, N. Korea, Iran, Cuba, elsewhere. This hell can go on for decades and generations once they are allowed to seize power.
You make a good point.
Perhaps you can someday persuade my grandkids to fight for French sanity. ….in the meantime I am too pissed off to even think of drafting kith and kin to such a fight.
There are some who assume that rescuing France from the grip of the Stalinist elites requires military intervention and boots on the ground. Not necessary or even remotely within the strategic commitments of U.S. forces. What it would take is no-holds-barred economic warfare by the biggest economic hammer on the planet. The means are there, but the will is a question.
Perhaps I should remind some of the readers here that, if not for France, the American colonists could not have prevailed against the British in the American Revolution. Between 1778 and 1782 the French provided supplies, arms and ammunition, uniforms, troops, and critical naval support to the beleaguered Continental Army. The French navy transported reinforcements, fought off a British fleet, and protected Washington’s forces in Virginia. French assistance was crucial in securing the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. France was also the first major European power to officially recognize the United States as an independent nation, a move that strengthened the Americans politically and militarily.
France bore the brunt of the fighting against the Germans in WWI at the cost of 1.3 million dead and over 1 million maimed.
The U.S. returned the favor of France’s help in the America Revolution in helping to liberate France from Nazi occupation in WWII. Many American airmen owe their lives to the help of the French Resistance. To this day the French express their gratitude and admiration for Americans for their sacrifices in WWII. Go to Normandy and you will see what I mean.
Regarding the charge that the French are too cowardly to save their own country, I don’t think you know history or the French. Have you seen how they turned out in massive numbers during the Yellow Vest movement (starting in 2018), to take just one example? Their turnouts put anything observed in the U.S. to shame (except perhaps for Jan 6, which was hijacked by Progressive Democrats and their allies on the left to produce their “Reichstag Fire” moment for propaganda and lawfare purposes).
It should be remembered, if you know the history, that it takes a relatively small fraction of the population who are fanatical totalitarians to seize control of a country and overturn the will of the people. Russia, China, N. Korea are just a few of many examples in history. Once they seize power, their totalitarian reign can run for decades and generations (and continues to this day in some of these countries). As was the case in the U.S. over the past 4 yrs, the will of the people can be suppressed by a tyrannical party regime. It is as true in France (or Britain and Germany) as it has been here. The French people deserve our support. They were there for us in a massive effort to help us establish the American Republic. We must never forget.
We should also not forget the very significant contributions of Spain to the ultimate success of the American Revolution. Book recommendation: L. D. Ferreiro, Brothers at Arms (2016).
Are the “French people” the same people who were alive in 1776? Support for freedom is a good thing in principle, but to extend gratitude and respect over hundreds of years when beliefs and character and even the ethnic composition of the nation have changed so much seems way too abstract for me.
The French and the Germans have let Muslims into the henhouse. Nothing good will come from this. The Euro trash never learn.
There needs to be a shift in the descriptive language when describing the situation. Instead of talking and writing about Muslim migrants who don’t intend to assimilate, it would be better to refer to it as the process of Islamic colonialization.
This is terrible, but it makes me wonder why the fate of the sane majority is so closely tied to one candidate’s personality. Doesn’t her party have a replacement ready with essentially the same views and policies? Let’s not forget that any individual is mortal and can suffer endless sorts of disabilities and other obstacles. The same applies to Trump in the U.S. Why aren’t there a large number of alternative candidates with the same platform (or are there)?
If we have a righteous cause, we cannot afford to allow it to depend on any one human being.
“Doesn’t her party have a replacement ready”
Yes. Jordan Bardella or even Le Pen’s niece Marion Maréchal if she is let back into the fold having been deemed too further to the Conservative Catholic right so left National Rally.
“Why aren’t there a large number of alternative candidates with the same platform (or are there)?”
Be the political system in America is dominated/controlled by only 2 political parties: democrats and republicans. They control who gets to run for office.
When all is said and done, the American people will compliantly vote for the candidate our 2 party system serves up to them. The 2-party system simply cannot allow people they do not own & control to run for elected office. Trump was and is an anomaly that slipped through the cracks (he didn’t need their money) but will not be allowed to happen again.
What do you think of Vance? Is he just another RINO?
fsy:
With respect, it’s my belief (opinion) with our dna, it’s us
humans that cause nonstop warfare !
We cannot stifle our greed and hatred !
Eddie
Most people are ALL talk….and very few have actual COURAGE. They need a REAL LEADER : A MARINE LE PEN, A VICTOR ORBAN , A POPE JOHN PAUL, A TOMMY ROBINSON, A GEERT WILDER , A BIBI NETANYAHU OR DONALD TRUMP come along maybe once in a Generation or a Decade or even a Century (if you are lucky.) Support them! And count your blessings…..or blow it. Up to you…but trust me, another is not waiting in the wings !
Democracy, sadly, is dying in Western Europe, the UK only to be replaced by totalitarian government and soon to be Sharia laws.
A cogent argument can be made that western Europe was never really democrat as we here in America understand the term. The entirety of the continent’s history is monarchy, feudalism, Nazism, communism and in the last 70+ years, socialism which is not democracy by any stretch of the imagination.
Given their history, totalitarianism is easier for them to swallow than free market capitalism and liberty & freedom.
It’s interesting to speculate on why “America” is different (actually, just the U.S.A.; Canada seems to be just as bad as Europe). The first thing that comes to mind is the historical ‘accident’ of discovering a practically empty continent.
This book which I read some years ago deals with this question:
I would argue that the U.S. didn’t look any better than Europe over the past 4 years (during the Biden regime), or during Obama’s reign when he and his apparatchiks went about “transforming” America. The conflicts in Europe go back centuries, and representative democratic republics have not been the norm over the centuries (though the period of the Roman Republic is an interesting exception to examine in antiquity). Major resets in governance took place at the end of WWII, but some of the anti-democratic forces remained in place (the Communist parties of the Soviet Union and China, for example, as well as their proxies in Europe).
During the Biden regime, many of the tyrannical policies exceeded even those found in Western Europe. Obama effectively lit the fuse for the explosive migration of Muslims out of the Middle East into Europe, with his actions playing a key role in the rise of ISIS. His fellow Socialist/Globalist comrades in European seats of government then threw gasoline on that fire with their open borders policies (just as with the Biden regime over the past 4 yrs). What we are witnessing now is the global response of people to these Socialist/Stalinist tyrants who aim to stamp out any opposition to their control, by any means necessary.
I find it encouraging that they use the same old ‘stupid tricks’ everywhere. We will win.
I don’t know if I’m encouraged, but I’m encouraged that you’re encouraged.