Fraud and the Faux Martyrs

And right on cue, the jackals are howling. The moment Marine Le Pen was found guilty of diverting EU funds to pay her party minions – a conviction rooted in documents, investigations, and law, not vibes – the chorus of the far-right cranked up its usual refrain: persecution, conspiracy, martyrdom! Apparently, fraud is only fraud when it’s someone else doing it. When it’s one of their own, it’s suddenly all a witch-hunt and the liberal elite closing ranks.

Let’s not pretend this wasn’t coming. The entire far-right playbook hinges on grievance – real, imagined, or outright fabricated. So when Le Pen was told she can’t run in 2027 due to a criminal conviction, her supporters didn’t ask why she was convicted. They didn’t even bother looking at the evidence. No – they reached for the tricolour, wept about democracy, and began reciting their favourite bedtime story: the system is rigged against us.

Never mind that this same system has tried, convicted, and sentenced politicians across the spectrum – Sarkozy, Fillon, Guéant. Never mind that Le Pen had every chance to defend herself in court, and did. And certainly don’t mention that the conviction came not from shadowy Brussels bureaucrats, but from a French court, following French law. Facts don’t suit martyrs.

Instead, we’re told this is a political stitch-up. A rogue judge. An establishment hit job. One imagines a smoky backroom full of cackling centrists plotting to derail her inevitable victory, as if fraud convictions grow on trees and banning someone from public office is just another trick in the liberal toolkit.

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t some clerical cock-up. This was a years-long scheme to funnel public money into party coffers. EU cash, intended for parliamentary work, used to pay National Rally foot soldiers. That’s not poor judgement. That’s deliberate deception. That’s fraud.

But what’s most revealing is the reaction. Not just from her cultists in France, but from her ideological bedfellows across Europe – Salvini, Orbán, and the rest of the hard-right gallery. They don’t want justice. They want impunity. For them, being held accountable is proof of persecution. Law only matters when it's used against their enemies. When it's applied to them, it’s tyranny.

They wrap themselves in flags and bang on about patriotism, yet when caught robbing the very taxpayers they claim to defend, they cry foul and accuse the courts of political interference. It’s not patriotism – it’s parasitism.

The irony? In trying to play the victim, they expose their own contempt for democracy. Because democracy doesn’t just mean voting – it means rules, accountability, consequences. If Le Pen can’t meet the basic standard of not committing fraud with public money, then she has no place on a ballot.

This isn’t silencing. It’s safeguarding. And if that upsets the far-right, good. Let them scream. Let them hold their rallies and wave their banners. Because every time they defend corruption as martyrdom, they remind the rest of us exactly what they are.

Not misunderstood patriots. Not victims of the system.

Just grifters in tricolour drag – demanding impunity for fascists.