The first figure from the central bloc to speak out on the requisitions in the affair of the FN parliamentary assistants, the former Minister of the Interior refuses that his nationalist opponent “cannot appear before the vote of the French”.
His comment risks spilling a lot of ink. A few hours after the prosecution's requisitions in the case of the parliamentary assistants of the National Front (FN), which demanded five years in prison, three of which were suspended, but above all a sentence of ineligibility against Marine Le Pen, Gérald Darmanin qualifies as “shocking” the scenario in which his nationalist opponent “cannot stand before the suffrage of the French” in the next presidential election. The first figure from the central bloc to speak publicly about this hypothetical impediment, the former Minister of the Interior accepts it: “Fighting Madame Le Pen is done at the ballot box, not elsewhere.”
While the prosecution asked the court to combine this ineligibility with a provisional execution, meaning that it would apply immediately even if Marine Le Pen appeals, the deputy from the North drives the point home. And defends the one he faced in February 2021 during a televised debate on the separatism law. “If the court judges that she must be condemned, she cannot be sentenced electorally, without the expression of the People”insisted Gérald Darmanin.
A way for those who make no secret of their ambitions for 2027 not to give the impression of despising Marine Le Pen in the race for the Élysée. Even considering it as a future competitor: “Let us not be afraid of democracy and let us avoid widening, even further, the difference between the “elites” and the immense majority of our fellow citizens.”
