Le Pen’s conviction is welcome, but the fascists are shifting strategy and the left needs to mount a broad-based response, argues John Mullen

Antifascists in France have had good news. At the end of a two-month trial, far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzling millions of euros in public funds over an eleven-year period. The judge concluded she was ‘at the centre … of an organised system’ aimed at funnelling public money into party funds. During the trial, she did not try to contest the clear evidence of guilt, and now she has been sentenced to four years in prison, half of which is suspended, (the remaining time is to be served under electronic tagging). Twenty-three other members of her party were also convicted. The verdict also bars her from running for public office for five years, but does not oblige her to resign her present position as an MP. The sentence may well make her unable to stand for the presidency in 2027: in response, she and her party launched a campaign against ‘the tyranny’ of ‘red judges’. The trial judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, is now under police protection.

Since Le Pen has appealed, the prison sentence does not apply immediately, but the judge decided that the ban on standing for election should. It seemed there would not be enough time for an appeal before the presidential election campaign starts up, but after signs of annoyance by right-wing Prime Minister Bayrou and hard-right interior minister Retailleau, the Paris appeals court has promised to rush the process so that, by mid-2026, the ban will be confirmed (the most likely outcome) or overturned.

The fascist Rassemblement National has always pretended that ‘the fight against corruption’ was one of their highest priorities, and claimed that only they could ‘hold their heads high, with clean hands’. Marine Le Pen even demanded a few years ago that any elected official found guilty of corruption should be banned for life from standing in elections! But she has been shown to be just as corrupt as the traditional right in France. Everyone here remembers François Fillon, presidential candidate of the traditional right in 2017, who was sentenced to four years in prison; and the present right-wing Prime Minister François Bayrou narrowly avoided conviction last year when his close colleagues were sentenced for embezzlement. This week’s verdict, showing up the deep hypocrisy of the RN, will have demoralised some of their supporters, and could make the job of antifascists a little easier.

However, though any blow against Le Pen is worth celebrating, the usefulness of this verdict has been exaggerated by many. Fascism is a response to profound political crisis and is not stopped by establishment courts. It is well worth remembering that Adolf Hitler was found guilty of treason and imprisoned in 1923. Ten years later, he got seventeen-million votes in national elections. In addition, Jordan Bardella, probable replacement candidate for the RN, has some electoral advantages over Le Pen: he is a man, and, not being of the Le Pen family, would have more flexibility in fine-tuning his electoral image to build mass support.

Macron and the fascists

Macron and his ministers have made it clear for years that their main priority is avoiding a radical-left government, and that they are less worried about fascists. Indeed they have helped the fascists build, and rely on their neutrality in parliamentary votes. Only two months ago,

Prime Minister François Bayrou claimed that, in France, there was a danger of people feeling ‘drowned by immigration’. The Macronists have been falling over themselves to claim that the real problem is immigrants and Muslims. A new bill to ban women wearing hijab from playing competitive sports is in preparation, while each year immigration law gets harsher. When Macron’s own ministers have claimed French Universities are filled with powerful ‘Islamo-leftists’, this can only aid the RN with its fantasies about ‘red judges’.

The left response

On the left, there is some debate about whether the immediate imposition by the courts of an election ban, before an appeal can be heard, is a dangerous precedent. This is the opinion of the leadership of La France Insoumise, no doubt influenced by the many instances of courts being used against Lula and other left leaders in South America. But the radical and revolutionary groups in France are in agreement that the solution to fascism cannot be provided by judges. On March 22 already, we saw the largest antiracist mobilisation in France for a number of years, with demonstrations in dozens of towns organised by a broad alliance of left and union movements. And last summer, it was a historically huge left canvassing campaign which pushed the RN into third place in the parliamentary elections, when 27 different polls had said that they would come first. This dynamic needs to go much further.

If 61% of the French population find the verdict against the fascists ‘justified’ (34% disagree), there is still plenty to be concerned about. This week, 300 000 have signed a petition supporting Le Pen, and current-affairs programmes on mainstream TV are full of her MPs explaining how dignified she is acting, faced with these beastly judges. The Rassemblement National was unprepared for the verdict against Le Pen, and is in scramble mode responding. For several years, they have avoided organising street demonstrations and have concentrated on elections and the media, (partly to avoid the risk of the open Nazis in the party becoming too visible). On Sunday 6 April though, an RN rally is to take place in central Paris, and another in Marseille. This is a change from the recent RN strategy of building up establishment support by, for example, propping up the illegitimate right-wing government of François Bayrou, and by sending representatives to Israel for a conference on ‘countering antisemitism’. Nevertheless, RN leaders were emphasising before the rally the need to be ‘moderate’ in their slogans and not be demonstrating against the judges, but rather in support of Le Pen and in favour of ‘defending democracy ‘!

Opposition to the RN mobilisation is crucial. La France Insoumise and the Greens, along with some trade unions and student unions, and ATTAC, have called a counter rally elsewhere in the capital on Sunday. This is excellent but insufficient: RN leafletting planned across the country this weekend need to be opposed. The need for a broadly-based, specifically antifascist national mass campaign has rarely been so clear to see.

John Mullen is a revolutionary socialist, member of a France Insoumise group in the Paris region