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Marine Le Pen made one thing abundantly clear. She is not fading away quietly.
Despite being disgraced in a Paris courtroom, where she was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to a five-year ban from office, Le Pen showed no signs of remorse or regret in her speech to her party supporters.
There was no acknowledgment of wrongdoing or remorse in her address. She sees herself as a victim of a political setup by the establishment, a belief her audience in the French capital enthusiastically endorsed.
The leader of the far-right National Rally party had been convicted of participating in a largescale and planned effort to defraud the European parliament and its taxpayers by using fraudulent accounts to secure millions in funding.
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<span class="ui-media-caption__caption-text" data-role="caption-text">Le Pen invokes Martin Luther King Jr
The judge in the case observed a politician who had long advocated for stricter penalties for corrupt politicians and decided to apply the full force of the law.
For political rivals, watching their most formidable opponent removed from active politics was a welcome development. Former prime minister Gabriel Attal told supporters at another rally that Le Pen had stolen funds and should face punishment.
However, even Le Pen’s adversaries are uneasy about the five-year ban from office. Some legal observers believe the judge’s ruling was excessive.
Regardless of the merits of the case, it fails to alleviate the country’s political crisis.
It offers no solutions to the deep-seated and disenfranchised sense of grievance on the fringes of society that initially propelled Le Pen to such popularity.
Jordan Bardella, National Rally’s president, spoke at the same event. Pic: Reuters
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Additionally, other populists in France and around the world are using this as a hot-button issue.
Populists view society as split between “the people” and the corrupt elite governing them.
Le Pen’s situation fits this narrative perfectly. It’s not surprising that her speech was preceded by a series of short videos from other right-wing populists, ranging from Italy’s Matteo Salvini to the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders.
In the United States, Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk have also weighed in.
Le Pen, banished to the political wilderness, is still capable of stirring up significant trouble.
