FAR-right figurehead Marine Le Pen is set to show the influence she wields on France by toppling the government but she is also facing a trial that risks banishing her from politics for good.
Le Pen, who took over the far-right mantle from her father Jean-Marie, has over the last decade sought to turn her National Rally (RN) party into an electable force, even if critics still accuse it of being inherently racist.
The work of “dediabolisation” (“de-demonisation”) bore fruit in the snap legislative polls this summer, with the RN emerging as the largest single party in the National Assembly, although without the outright majority it had targeted.
That gave Le Pen unprecedented power over French politics, which she is set to use by backing a no-confidence vote that would topple the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier later on Wednesday.
Playing on people’s day-to-day concerns about immigration and the cost of living, Le Pen is also seen by many as having her best-ever chance to win the French presidency in 2027 after three unsuccessful attempts.
But a major hurdle lies ahead.
Le Pen, 56, and other RN defendants have been on trial accused of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament which they deny. The verdict is due on March 31.
If convicted, she could receive, according to the requests by prosecutors, a jail sentence and a ban from public office that would disqualify her from the presidential polls even if she appeals.
Le Pen responded by saying that prosecutors wanted her “political death”, adding that she was being put on trial as a “political target”.
Some commentators have suggested that Le Pen took a hard line in negotiations with Barnier on the budget — when many expected a compromise — to outflank President Emmanuel Macron before the March verdict.
There have been murmurs that she wanted to force Macron to resign and hold snap presidential elections, allowing her to take the Elysee, and with it presidential immunity, before the verdict.
‘Defend the French’
Her young lieutenant and protege Jordan Bardella, 29, who is the RN party chief, is not among the accused in the trial and is also seen as a potential presidential contender.
He has just published his first book “Ce que je cherche” (“What I am Looking For”) describing growing up in the Paris suburbs and his political vision.
In a comment seen by some as a shot across the bow of Le Pen, Bardella told French television last month that “not having a criminal record is, for me, rule number one when you want to be an MP.”
While opponents dubbed him “Brutus” after the Roman politician who assassinated ex-ally Julius Ceasar, Le Pen denied there were any tensions with her protege, saying they had a “relationship of trust”.
Le Pen had meanwhile denied any link between this trial and the current crisis.
“I will do what I have to do to defend the French. And this trial in no way comes into consideration,” she said.
Le Pen has moved to soften her image in the 11 years she has led the former National Front, which she renamed the National Rally (RN) after expelling her father in 2015.
Le Pen’s life has been marked by the legacy of her openly racist father, a veteran of the long war in Algeria that ultimately led to the former French colony’s independence.
Her expulsion of the elder Le Pen, who once called the gas chambers of the Holocaust a “detail of history”, has also helped temper its toxic image.
But Le Monde daily said her move to bring down the government had instantly “shattered” the normalisation of the party and also revealed an “outburst of anger” over the trial.
“The myth of the quiet march towards power is over,” it said. (AFP)
