“He should not have said that, especially a former Minister of the Interior”: Xavier Bertrand is outraged by Gérald Darmanin's comments on the penalty of ineligibility required against Marine Le Pen

The pill doesn't work. And that's the least we can say.

After the heavy requisitions of the prosecution against Marine Le Pen, at the trial of the parliamentary assistants of the RN, Wednesday November 13, a message posted on X by the former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, created an outcry, even within his own political class. In fact, the prosecution requested against Mrs. Le Pen, 5 years in prison including three years suspended, a fine of 300,000 euros but also 5 years of ineligibility with provisional execution.

“It would be deeply shocking if Marine Le Pen were deemed ineligible and, thus, unable to stand before the vote of the French people. Fighting Madame Le Pen is done at the ballot box, not elsewhere. If the court judges she must be convicted , it cannot be electorally, without the expression of the People, 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. writing in the evening of this Wednesday Gérald Darmanin on X.

These writings can leave room for comment, as evidenced by the numerous reactions that followed.

For Xavier Bertrand (LR), President of the Hauts-de-France regional council, “he should not have said that. Especially a former Minister of the Interior”, he declared this Thursday, November 14 morning on RTL. Adding: “Or he follows through with his thoughts, and submits a bill to remove ineligibility. But in the meantime the law exists, it applies to everyone and no one is above the law. And not Madame Le Pen.”

He also adds that if the European Parliament was harmed in this affair, “it is our taxes which have been misappropriated”. According to him, it is up to the court to decide the responsibility of the authors, “not with the requisitions, but with the decision”. Concluding: “The magistrates will apply the law […] democracy is also respect for justice.”