April 1, 2025 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French.
“The weapon of ineligibility will have to be used much more rigorously,” wrote Marine Le Pen (leader of the extreme right National Rally (RN) party in France) in 2012…. She has been taken at her word, the sentence given: four years in prison, two of which are to be served, and five years of ineligibility (for future political elections). RN leaders have come back barking on TV sets, defending their boss, tooth and nail. When, once in a blue moon, big names of the bourgeoisie find themselves in the crosshairs of their own judicial system, they cry out “scandal” in harmony. Yet, one can only be delighted at such an unexpected turn of events!
Indeed, Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzling public money, 4 million euros ($4.3 million), to run her party, giving a piece of the pie to her devotees, family and friends. Her sister, her sister-in-law, her ex, her assistant, were all paid between 5,000 and 9,000 euros for tasks they did not perform. Le Pen even paid for her father’s butler with cash from the European Parliament. Let’s imagine for a second how these “saints” would react if a young person or a worker were to steal 4 million euros!
Yet, political representatives from the far right to the (moderate) left have all come to Le Pen’s aid. For example, the Prime Minister Bayrou said he was “troubled” by the sentence. Even Mélenchon, leader of the left party “La France Insoumise” found that “the decision to dismiss an elected representative should be up to the people.” But for a lot of people, it’s a no-brainer: the sheer nerve of calling herself a champion of law and order…to then do a 180° and throw it out the window!
Are we killing democracy?
Heads high and their hands in the till, Le Pen’s supporters are now claiming that democracy is in danger. We’ve even seen Putin, [right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister] Orbán, and Musk all come out of the woodwork daring to cry out that there’s a mockery being done of democracy! The sentence will be carried out immediately, even if Le Pen appeals: she will be deprived of the presidential election. For the reactionary skewer mentioned above, that is the height and extent of democracy: allowing folks to turn in a ballot once every five years for a cheating, racist millionaire who serves the interests of the bosses!
The RN presents itself as a victim, a martyr of a “system” that wants it dead. But it is quite the opposite! Over these last few years, the reactionary, racist ideas and lies of the RN have been taken up to varying degrees by the parties who sit in the major institutions. For the past nine months, the RN has been fully integrated into a kind of parliamentary coalition ranging from the PS (Socialist Party) to the far right, behind Bayrou and [French Presidenet] Macron. Abroad, the RN also presents itself as a respectable party, welcomed by Trump and Netanyahu. In the latest legislative elections, the far-right party made some changes to its program, adjusting the social promises that employers found least acceptable, notably the retirement age of 62. The Le Pen trial episode reveals the RN as a distinctly bourgeois party, driven by the same backdoor politics, backroom deals, and financial clout typical of this social class. An anti-worker party. And with or without Marine Le Pen, it obviously will remain so!
A court ruling has never silenced the far right
However, it is not impossible that Le Pen and her associates will try to take advantage of their conviction, in terms of the popularity that could be transferred to the intended successor, Jordan Bardella. Other far-right leaders have in the past been able to use to their advantage such situations in their ascension to power (Trump first and foremost). It doesn’t matter that they promise integrity, that they say, as Bardella did last November, that having a criminal record is incompatible with standing for election. Once they find themselves convicted, they cry conspiracy!
We are obviously not finished with the far right. This sentence has the merit of revealing that the RN is a party like any other (as getting caught embezzling public funds is almost an initiation rite in this political milieu). To confront the far right, we have to unapologetically defend our ideals of solidarity and internationalism, putting into action the unity of all workers in their fight for better working and living conditions, opposing the racist divisions instigated by the exploiters and the politicians who serve their interests, with the RN at the helm.
