Question which we have not finished debating while waiting to know, at the beginning of 2025, if the judges will follow the prosecutors who, in the case of the FN assistants paid by the European Parliament, demanded 5 years of immediate ineligibility against Marine Le Pen.
Basically, seen from the RN, the question is simple: do judges consider themselves above the people? Could a handful of magistrates obstruct the general will, deprive millions of voters of their candidate, as Marine Le Pen said, “by undermining democracy”, according to Jordan Bardella, “government of judges”, for Éric Zemmour?
To these criticisms, the prosecutor responded in advance in his indictment: “Yes, the judicial decision is legitimate in producing its effects on democratic life, legitimate, because this role was imposed on it by the legislator.” In other words, judges must apply the law as politicians intended, precisely to punish such abuses.
What are we talking about? Of the two scandals which marred Hollande's five-year term. 2013, the Cahuzac affair, budget minister convicted of tax fraud, a first law creates the High Authority for transparency in public life.
2014, again with the Thévenoud affair, brief secretary of state who pleads administrative phobia to justify his unpaid taxes and rents, François Hollande then asks the high magistrate Jean-Louis Nadal for a report and suggestions on exemplarity policies. Proposition number 18: deprive them of mandate, make them ineligible. The idea does not fall from the sky, it is popular. A poll tells us that 85% of French people are in favor of making elected officials convicted of embezzlement permanently ineligible.
The 2016 law will not go that far, it makes ineligibility a mandatory additional penalty in the event of a breach of integrity, this is the one that could apply to Marine Le Pen and the other defendants. But this law was almost tightened. This was one of candidate Macron's promises in 2017: a ban on all those with a criminal record, bulletin number 2, from running in a simple and radical election.
The measure had already been voted on by the Assembly as part of a socialist proposal in February 2017. I reread the debates, it's fascinating, not the slightest dissonant voice, on the left, on the right, in the center, on all benches, it's obvious: no clean record, no elective mandate, while nearly 400 professions are subject to this requirement, from taxi drivers to real estate agents.
Law adopted unanimously, which is not trivial, but reform ultimately abandoned because of a risk of unconstitutionality. We remained with compulsory ineligibility.
Note, among the most fervent defenders of the clean record, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan who, in support of Marine Le Pen, said last night that “the judges wanted to muzzle the French”.
In reality, as history shows, this law was not made against the RN, a party which also campaigns against the laxity of judges and for the return of minimum sentences. It applies to everyone and the strength of a democracy is measured by its ability to enforce its principles.
