Tea at Trianon: Marine Le Pen and the Weaponized Judiciary

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Marine Le Pen and the Weaponized Judiciary

From First Things:

Her current rise reflects in many ways a right-wing shift in French politics. Once shunned as a racist proposition, the National Rally’s central campaign plank, ending mass immigration from the Global South, is now increasingly being accepted by French public opinion. According to a 2023 poll, 64 percent of the French want non-European immigration to be curtailed. Another poll shows, even more tellingly, that 51 percent of the left-wing, pro-immigration and pro-Islamic LFI party’s voters agree that there are too many non-European immigrants.

But more factors are also working in Marine Le Pen’s favor this time. One of her major achievements, since she succeeded her father Jean-Marie Le Pen as party leader in 2011, was to “dedemonize” the party and win over hitherto reluctant voters: Once smacking of Vichy State nostalgia, the National Rally turned into a neo-Gaullist and democratic organization.

Additionally, Macron will not be taking part in the 2027 election. A 2008 amendment limits French presidents to two consecutive five-year terms. Macron must therefore forego the election, though he may run again in 2032. This dynamic puts Le Pen at a distinct advantage against less prominent or less seasoned opponents, including Edouard Philippe, a former Macronist prime minister, who is polling at 21 percent.

But that’s only if Le Pen is allowed to run in 2027—and incredibly, she might not be. (Read more.)