How the French right can still win

It has been a terrible year for the Le Pen family. Jean-Marie died in the first week of January. He was the patriarch who in 1972 co-founded the National Front and grew it into a formidable political machine before handing over to his daughter. Marine took command in 2011 and, through a strategy of ‘de-demonisation’, transformed the rebranded National Rally into the biggest single party in the National Assembly with 125 seats. She has reached the second round of the last two presidential elections, but it won’t be third time lucky for Marine Le Pen.

On Monday, a judge disqualified her from politics for five years for misusing EU funds between 2004 and 2016. Le Pen was also given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined €100,000. Twenty-four other members of her party, including eight MEPs, were given lesser sentences for what the judge described as well-organised malfeasance. It was accepted that neither she nor her co-accused had personally enriched themselves with €2.9 million from the EU coffers, but in using the money to finance the party the judge said that Le Pen had ‘circumvented democracy’.

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Le Pen stormed out of the court before the sentence was passed, but had calmed down by the evening when she appeared live on television. Nevertheless, she was in combative mood. It wasn’t just her who had been excluded, she declared, ‘it’s millions of French people whose votes have been eliminated’. She described the sentence as a ‘political decision’ and a ‘violation of the State of Law’. Le Pen confirmed that she will appeal the judgment, and she also had a message for her 11 million voters: ‘Don’t worry, I’m not demoralised, I’m outraged.