By Gustavo García

Automatic translation made by AI

Last Monday, March 31, the conviction for embezzlement of public funds of Marine Le Pen, the political leader of the French far-right party National Rally (Rassemblement National), was in the news. Accused of creating positions with funds from the European Union to guarantee salaries to her family circle, to face personal and party expenses. Le Pen was sentenced to 4 years in prison, two of which she could serve under house arrest and two of them suspended, plus a disqualification from running for elections and holding public office for 5 years.

Loose lips sink ships

If anyone tried to define themselves as ”anti-system” in France, in these last years of capitalist crisis and anger against those who ruled, it was Marine Le Pen. Her proto-fascist hate speech was accompanied by a “fierce struggle” against the privileges of the political caste that has governed and still governs, going so far as to openly declare in 2013 that whoever is accused of the charge for which she was convicted should be disqualified “for life”.

Although she is accused of several crimes, the scandal arises centrally because she created assistant positions, during her term as a member of the European parliament in the period 2004 to 2017, for her ex-husband, her brother-in-law and even the maid of her deceased father, the fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen. People who, moreover, never worked for such labors.

All the solidarity with… Le Pen? !!

This highly hypocritical event, although it caused a logical indignation in broad popular layers and joy at the conviction in many others, did not push for a retreat of the National Grouping but, on the contrary, they are currently deploying a campaign against the judges who condemned their top political leadership, “against the institutions and the system.” From her campaign, they argue that democracy is in danger, since it threatens the freedom to participate in elections as a candidate. We are not surprised: Marine Le Pen is the main figure of the extreme right, she participated in the last ballot against the current President Emmanuel Macron and is a strong candidate for the next presidential elections in 2027. He doesn’t want to be left out so easily. That is why they are in permanent mobilization, to the point that they mobilized on Sunday, April 6, for the second time in a week. Political moves that the mass media describe as similar to those of Trumpism.

But unfortunately, not only did he have an offensive solidarity campaign by his space friends, but the entire political arc up to the left of Mélenchon have hesitated and even expressed their concern about the conviction. This is how the leader of La France Insoumise (La France Insoumise – LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon has said that “the decision to dismiss an elected official should be made by the people,” explaining that “La France Insoumise has never had as a way of acting to use the courts to get rid of National Grouping. We are fighting it at the polls and in the streets, through the mobilization of the French people.” Disconcerting position.

But it turns out that Libération, a few days ago, reported that Jean-Luc Mélenchon was at the center of a judicial investigation opened in 2018. A report by the European Anti-Fraud Office concluded that “irregularities” worth 500,000 euros had occurred. However, neither the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) nor any other person has yet been charged in this proceeding, the outcome of which is not inevitably that of a trial.

Not only that politically he is seeking to protect himself from an eventual investigation, trial and conviction, but also in that attempt he is glued to characters of the extreme right such as Éric Zemmour, of Reconquista, who defended Le Pen’s right to stand for elections also explaining that “it is not up to the judges to decide for whom the people should vote.”

A revolutionary policy against privileges

In its editorial the NPA Révolutionnaires[1] expressed with fair clarity the need to demand the immediate application of the penalty. Le Pen should not stand for elections even if many people fill their mouths denouncing that “democracy is in danger.” Because finally they remember democracy when it suits them, they maintain this democracy as long as it guarantees their profits and contains the anger of the workers, but as soon as it becomes inevitable to cover up their corruption and it comes against them, they try by all means to escape it. We have never seen any of these characters “worried” about the repression of social protest or the budget cuts in health and education, wouldn’t that be defending democracy too? Hypocrites!

To put an end to corruption, we believe that it is necessary to move towards another model: Doing politics cannot be a path to individual enrichment. That’s why politicians should win like a director of an educational establishment; if they decide on the public, they have to use the public by law, it’s enough to attend private clinics and send their children to private schools and the revocation of mandate as a fundamental axis.

To defeat the extreme right, hand in hand with corrupt justice?

Finally, we know that defeating the extreme right is more complex than a penalty through this justice that lets violent people go free, persecutes migrants and condemns workers who exercise their right to organize a union or protest. The class character of this justice will only change when the workers, our class, through the way of political power, transform this system, and with it, all the institutions. But for that task, organization is key. Let’s build it on the streets, in our workplaces, in the faculties. Because the world should be ruled by those who make it work

[1] https://npa-revolutionnaires.org/marine-le-pen-se-prend-la-prison-ferme-quelle-reclame-pour-dautres/