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A French court just blocked Marine Le Pen from running in 2027. The elites say they’re defending democracy, but the truth is much darker.

Who’d have guessed? Another populist outsider has been convicted in a lawsuit timed perfectly to prevent them from running in an upcoming election.

This time, it’s Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally party, who was a 10-point favourite in the polls for the 2027 French presidential race.

On Monday, a Paris court found she misused over €4 million by falsely employing party staff as parliamentary assistants between 2004 and 2016. She was given a a €100,000 fine and sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended and the other two to be served under house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet.

What Le Pen’s political foes were really gunning for, however, was a ban to keep her out of the upcoming race — and they succeeded. A five-year ban was imposed immediately through a “provisional execution” measure requested by prosecutors and approved by the courts, conveniently blocking her from the presidential election.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on French politics, but I do notice patterns — and this one is becoming all too familiar.

Last November, courts barred right-wing Romanian candidate Călin Georgescu from the country’s presidential election rerun after he won the first round, following claims of Russian interference in his campaign.

Meanwhile, in Germany, there are moves afoot to ban right-wing Alternative für Deutschland, with the party already placed under surveillance for alleged extremism.

Je suis Marine! @MLP_officiel

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) March 31, 2025

And don’t forget Donald Trump, whose enemies sought to jail him for hundreds of years in lawsuits timed perfectly to kneecap his campaign — and that stretched statues of limitations in order to target him, involved judges tied to Biden’s campaign, and centred on crimes that had no victim.

Notice the common thread in each of these cases: Wildly popular candidates who want secure borders for their people, law and order, an anti-interventionist foreign policy, a fair go for the working class, and less deference to globalist bodies like the EU, the UN and NATO.

They are outsiders who pose a threat to the established global order, and who aren’t afraid to malign the media, ditch the doublespeak, break up the bureaucracy, and make their appeals directly to the people who have disenfranchised by elite powerbrokers.

What of the argument that “no one is above the law” — that Le Pen is merely getting her just desserts?

This might be convincing if there weren’t so many glaring double standards at play.

Consider the case of Christine Lagarde, a pro-Europe technocrat who was convicted of negligence in 2016 over a €400 million fraud case, and instead of receiving jail time was promoted to President of the European Central Bank.

Or take the Qatargate scandal, where a group of centre-left MEPs stand accused of pocketing millions in Qatari bribes — yet the case crawls forward at snail’s pace, despite the corruption being far more blatant than Le Pen’s.

Or three Spanish Socialist MEPs who evaded taxes — and 108 more who repaid millions in Euros for misuse of funds — in a case that prompted no criminal charges or political bans.

Or the Greek PASOK professors who misused €8 million in EU grants for personal and party use and were slapped with fines and light sentences.

No one is above the law? Eu contraire — embezzling EU funds is only a grave offence worthy of full legal force when it’s a right-wing outsider in the crosshairs.

US Vice President JD Vance became an object of mockery for taking to the stage in Munich and rebuking a room full of Eurocrats for subverting democracy and punishing populist provocateurs. With this week’s conviction of Marine Le Pen, it’s fair to say that every word of Vance’s address has been vindicated.

JD Vance’s Munich speech was pure fire 🔥

Elites haven’t copped such a hiding since Ricky Gervais embarrassed Hollywood.

I counted no less than 30 quotable quotes from Vance’s speech. Here they are: pic.twitter.com/5ipA1NEfFK

— Kurt Mahlburg (@k_mahlburg) February 15, 2025

As Spiked! editor Tom Slater has pointed out, “For true democrats, Le Pen’s politics are irrelevant. Whether or not she – or any politician – should get to lead France must be decided at the election, not in court.” He continues:

We all know where the most clear and pressing threats to European democracy are coming from right now – from embattled elites who want to crush populist challengers, laws that hold ordinary people in contempt, and useful idiots who would rather cackle at their opponents’ downfall than stand on a point of democratic principle. Call me old-fashioned, but I think voters should get to choose — and turf out — their rulers.

Alas, letting voters decide is precisely what the French elites are hoping to avoid. Where would democracy be without its noble defenders?

For Marine Le Pen’s part, she plans to appeal her conviction, with a decision expected by summer 2026.

In the meantime, watch for the ‘Trump bump’ as National Rally surges higher in the polls.