Since French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was sentenced, in the first instance, on March 31, to four years in prison – two suspended and two at home with an electronic tag – and a five-year ban on running for office, effective immediately, for embezzlement of public funds, she has targeted the judiciary. Alternating between aggressive and victimized stances, she has attempted to promote the idea that "red judges" interfered in the electoral process to block her path to the presidency, preventing those she represents from electing her to the Elysée, and distorting the rules of the democratic game.
Full-scale attacks against the "system," accusations against the "elites," who are blamed of "quietly getting used to tyranny," inventing a category of "sub-citizens" whom these nerfarious forces supposedly want to deprive of the right to vote: Together, these form a whole narrative that Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party had carefully shelved. It has now resurfaced, to try to promote the idea that popular sovereignty has been violated and that this injustice called for redress.
This approach is populist in nature, and it aims to fuel resentment, discredit the judicial institution, and undermine the rule of law. This fact is even less in doubt as, speaking in Paris on Sunday, April 6, before supporters that the RN sought to mobilize, Le Pen made sure to thank the "foreign personalities" who have supported her.
Donald Trump prominently features in the cluster of far-right and illiberal figures who have backed her. On Thursday, the president of the United States called to "free" Le Pen and condemned her conviction as a "witch hunt" intended to prevent her from winning the 2027 presidential election. She, herself, echoed this expression on Sunday.
The Trumpian temptation, however, faces two obstacles: First, Trump, as he has come to be perceived as erratic and dangerous, is unpopular in France, to the point that Le Pen had, until now, been at pains to distance herself from him. On Sunday, she used the same rhetoric as him, but in a more polished style, calling for "peaceful and democratic, popular and patriotic resistance," to avoid giving the impression that the rally was a power play.
Indecent reversal
Furthermore, the second obstacle is that a large majority of French people have not been moved by the sentence that was just pronounced against her. This is because the facts are stubborn: Le Pen was, indeed, found guilty of embezzlement of public funds, in the case of the far-right party's fake European parliamentary assistant jobs, a system she had personally managed, following on from her father, and the damages were estimated at over €4 million. Her conviction was duly explained, and it stems from laws that were almost unanimously passed by the people's representatives in Parliament. Her conviction also punished her defense strategy, which was particularly dismissive of the case from start to finish.
Having learned of the date of her appeal trial, which has been scheduled for the summer of 2026, Le Pen could have changed her defense strategy. Instead, she has chosen to persist in her attacks on the judges, all while claiming, in an inversion of the accusation, that she would one day restore the rule of law that was currently being flouted.
This rhetorical reversal was a bold one. It became indecent when she compared herself to Martin Luther King, the African American pastor who was assassinated in 1968 for having fought against racism and for civil rights. Trump himself had also referred to Martin Luther King in his inauguration speech on January 20.