On March 29, a French criminal court found far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling European Union funds. This verdict bans her from running for president in 2027 along with sentencing her to four years in prison with two years served under house arrest. Finally, it calls for her party, the National Rally (RN), to pay fines of €2 million in place of the €4.1 million which officials accused the party of embezzling. Across the world, many right-wing leaders have rallied behind Le Pen, using her conviction and ban from office as a platform to accuse the judicial system of being fraudulent and attack future judicial actions.
While the court case’s intended punishment was to diminish Le Pen’s power, her conviction has instead emboldened her and fellow right-wing figures. It has served as a platform for the far right to challenge legal and judicial systems.
Following the conviction, Le Pen’s mentee and RN President Jordan Bardella called the sentencing a “democratic scandal.” This pushback against a fair court ruling has the potential to create doubt in the fairness of European court systems, destabilizing the entire government because the judicial system’s role is to place checks on the rest of the government. If the judicial system is perceived as unjust and its authority is disrespected, then French politicians will no longer have systems in place to keep them accountable.
As Bardella is young and popular with most younger voters, this distrust in the legal system is being passed down to a new generation that will be the deciding demographic in future elections. The destabilization of the French government will not end here; instead, it will be passed down to younger voting generations, their children and more. By characterizing a fair court case as undemocratic, the far right is achieving their goal of destabilizing future voters’ faith in their government.
While many may have hoped that the court case would stop the RN from gaining power by banning their frontman from running, the RN is likely to replace Le Pen with Bardella. What began as a hurdle for the RN has now turned into a source of attention to draw in voters. Instead of seeming weak as their leader goes under house arrest, the RN has been able to turn what would otherwise be a simple case of political corruption into proof of a broken judicial system and more strikingly, proof of their resilience. Le Pen and Bardella have succeeded in revitalizing far-right France with a show of strength that proves to voters that judicial repercussions will not deter them.
The conviction’s effects do not stop at French borders; it also serves as a rallying point for far-right leaders across Europe such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Spanish Vox Party leader Santiago Abascal and Dutch politician Geert Wilders. All the aforementioned people are radical right-wing leaders, and Orbán has even been described as an autocrat. By giving these dangerous leaders a new platform to rally behind together, their power is elevated. Instead of being divided by their countries and domestic focus points, the conviction has drawn them outwards, to all of Europe.
Although the future for Le Pen and her 2027 presidential campaign is uncertain, she gathered with thousands of supporters in a French square following her conviction. While titled a protest, critics remarked that it held all the markings of a campaign rally. The danger behind these actions is that they send a message to the rest of the European far right that judges hold no power over presidential candidates and terms.
Additionally, protesters chanted, “They won’t steal 2027 from us,” mirroring the statements made by insurrectionists on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. If France follows the same path as the United States, then the following steps will be the normalization of right-wing extremism as formerly sidelined views manifest in public opinion.
While it is uncertain precisely what the future of right-wing extremism will look like across Europe, it is clear that Le Pen’s conviction is a turning point. Public attention is being directed towards extreme views, right-wing leaders are gaining support and banning together, and, most dangerously, the French judicial system’s authority has been upended. Actions must be taken globally to restore faith in the judicial system.
