Last November, Romania’s constitutional court made the unprecedented decision to annul the first round of elections, which were led by Călin Georgescu. The original reason for doing so was that he had benefited illegally from foreign interference, a charge that is less convincing than ought to be expected under such circumstances. As if to confirm it was all pretextual, Georgescu was arrested and then banned from the rerun election because, the court ruled, his candidacy “violated the very obligation to defend democracy.” Ominously, former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton remarked, “We did it in Romania, and obviously we will do it in Germany.”
He was wrong. The German electoral firewall held without the assistance of lawfare. Instead, they are doing it in France.
On Monday, Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of the party now called National Rally, received a prison sentence and a five-year ban on running for office. The reason for the punishment was the misappropriation of funds. Beginning 20 years ago, before she took over, the party diverted EU funds it received for staffing up its government offices to the carrying out of political tasks. There is no doubt the party is guilty of the offense. But the application of justice here is obviously politically motivated. Current French Prime Minister François Bayrou did similarly; he has never been punished. Others have received the equivalent of a slap on the wrist or nominal fines.
The political context is that Le Pen’s National Rally is currently the highest-polling party in France, roughly between 33–37 percent. The next closest rivals poll around 20 percent. This is a desperate attempt to do an end run around the French people. And, as in Romania, it may kick off a volatile political crisis, if the establishment is willing to carry it through.
In his speech at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance pointed at the situation in Romania and warned Europe that it was in danger of losing its shared values with America, including a respect for the democratic deliberations of its peoples. France has stepped up and all but declared: guilty as charged.
There is much we do not like in Marine Le Pen’s platform. And there is worse than that in the history of her party. But the popularity of her party is a reflection of real popular sentiment and of her work at de-radicalizing her party.
Democracy is not defended by depriving voters of popular choices. That is a sign of political decadence and will be self-defeating in the end. If the incumbent ruling establishments in liberal democracies cannot abide the election of popular outsiders, then their promise of offering people self-government is a lie.
There are better ways of containing populists. One way is to concede something to them. In Denmark, mainstream parties simply adopted the restrictive attitude toward immigration of their populist critics. Mainstream parties survived there, whereas in France they’ve been destroyed.
The other way is to cede nothing but go out and beat them fair and square. Le Pen’s opponents have done it before; they should try it again.