Sarkozy and Le Pen apologists are wrong: there is no 'judges' Republic' - just the Republic's judges
The court verdict that has effectively barred far-right leader Marine Le Pen from standing at the 2027 presidential election, preceded by prosecutors’ demands for former president Nicolas Sarkozy to receive a seven-year prison sentence in the Sarkozy-Gaddafi Libyan funding trial, have one thing in common. Within the space of a few days both pronouncements provoked unbridled populist rhetoric railing against the rule of law. In this op-ed article, Mediapart's Fabrice Arfi argues that beneath this outcry there lies a deep longing for the return of privileges and for the end of equality before the law.
InIn France, the problem of drug trafficking, burglaries, terrorism and physical violence lies with the drug dealers, burglars, terrorists and abusers. But when it comes to crimes involving dishonesty in public life, it seems the problem is with the justice system. More precisely, with those who uphold it in the name of the French people: the judges. Going by the spate of political and media comments since Marine Le Pen’s conviction on Monday for the misuse of public funds, the courts have apparently become agents undermining democracy.
