President Trump took to Truth Social Thursday night to demand that France “FREE MARINE LE PEN.” The message refers to the conviction of the hereditary leader of France’s far-right/populist National Rally party on charges of embezzlement, her four-year prison sentence and her subsequent five-year ban from running for office; see New: French Right-Wing Leader Marine Le Pen Sentenced to Prison, Banned From Elections in Disturbing Move – RedState.
The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going so far as to put that Opponent in prison. It is the same “playbook” that was used against me by a group of Lunatics and Losers, like Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, and Lisa Monaco. They spent the last nine years thinking of nothing else, and they FAILED, because the People of the United States realized that they were only Corrupt Lawyers and Politicians. I don’t know Marine Le Pen, but do appreciate how hard she worked for so many years. She suffered losses, but kept on going, and now, just before what would be a Big Victory, they get her on a minor charge that she probably knew nothing about – Sounds like a “bookkeeping” error to me. It is all so bad for France, and the Great French People, no matter what side they are on. FREE MARINE LE PEN!
Both Vice President JD Vance and advisor Elon Musk took up Le Pen’s cause.
JD Vance, who has accused European nations of democratic abuses by seeking to block far-right parties from office, also weighed in to support Le Pen.
“The Europeans, they are absolutely 100% our friends. But that relationship … it’s going to get stressed and it’s going to get tested if they keep on trying to throw opposition leaders in jail,” he told Newsmax on Thursday.
And Elon Musk, who has lent his support to far-right figures across Europe, reposted Trump’s message on his own X social media platform, writing: “Free Le Pen!”
In light of tariffs and NATO arguments, all of this makes me wonder what purpose this serves other than to troll Macron (NTTAWWT). But it doesn’t seem likely to work in Le Pen’s favor as she is appealing her sentence.
The Le Pen case is a complicated one in which several opposing things can be true simultaneously.
First, there is no evidence that Le Pen was the victim of the same type of lawfare to which Trump was subjected. She’s a perennial candidate for something and has been a member of the French and European parliaments. Though shunned by the French establishment, she has been allowed to exist on its fringes. Le Pen was convicted under a law whose passage she supported, and her prosecution is not unusual.
French courts, acting on laws passed and vigorously supported by Ms. Le Pen over the past 15 years in response to public outrage over political corruption, have hardened their positions on cases involving prominent politicians, including Nicolas Sarkozy, a former president.
The 2017 presidential bid of François Fillon, a former prime minister, was derailed by an investigation into no-show parliamentary jobs involving his wife and several children. He was convicted in 2020 but his case is still going through the appeals process.
That said, this is the first time a viable presidential candidate (Le Pen Celebrates Early Projections Showing Her Party With Massive Win in French Assembly Election – RedState and France’s Left Pulls Off Shocking Comeback Finishing First in Parliamentary Elections – RedState) has been barred from running for office. It is also the first time that a viable presidential candidate has been convicted of running a network of “no show” employees to finance their party’s operations when they weren’t taking out secret loans from a Russian bank.
There is no doubt that Europe, following Vladimir Putin’s lead, is using legal processes to kneecap anyone who goes against the status quo. Britain has repeatedly imprisoned Tommy Robinson for saying undeniable things about the failure of multiculturalism (as well as for fraud, using a fake passport, stalking, and assault). Italy’s Matteo Salvini, who leads the populist Lega party and is currently deputy prime minister, has been the target of repeated criminal and civil complaints that seem calculated to harass him. In South America, we’re seeing the destruction of the right/populist former president Jair Bolsonaro on what seem to be drummed up offenses sponsored by crypto-communist President Lula da Silva. So far, the leaders of Germany’s right/populist Alternative für Deutschland have escaped lawfare, but their party has pariah status, and I can’t imagine lawfare being far behind. Indications are that we can expect more, not less, political suppression of populism and populist candidates in Europe; see MUST-SEE: JD Vance Triggers Munich Security Conference, Rips European Hypocrites to Their Faces – RedState.
The issue of Le Pen’s guilt or innocence aside, prosecuting political candidates, particularly prominent ones, is just bad form. In my view, more damage is done to the legitimacy of the French government by convicting and seeking to imprison Le Pen than by finding some reason not to prosecute her. Once losing candidates figure out that leaving office comes with a lengthy prison sentence, they tend to stay in power. Unpopular ideas should be confronted politically, not judicially. Tommy Robinson would already be forgotten had the British government not set out to martyr him. If the political establishment doesn’t have the legitimacy to sustain itself, jailing opponents will be counterproductive.
In this particular case, there is a possible silver lining. Le Pen’s party is inextricably intertwined with her and with her father. It is much more a personal vanity vehicle than a political movement. If National Rally is a serious party, it will use Le Pen’s prosecution as ammunition and find a new leader not named Marine Le Pen. If it isn’t, then it will wither and die without her presence as it should.
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