Quick reminder: Le Pen wasn't found guilty because the French courts hate democracy. She was found guilty because she broke the fucking law. open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/... - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

iandunt.bsky.social • 7 days ago

Quick reminder: Le Pen wasn't found guilty because the French courts hate democracy. She was found guilty because she broke the fucking law.

https://open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/p/want-to-know-how-trump-gets-in-just?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7aibo

Comments

gerellen.bsky.social•7 days ago

📌

pottfisch.bsky.social•7 days ago

Vive la justice
vive la liberté
vive l'égalit

TimWardCam.c.im.ap.brid.gy•6 days ago

@iandunt.bsky.social What was her defence, if she had one? "But everybody does it"?

therealgreenegg.bsky.social•6 days ago

Gaslighting everywhere you look - and quite a few places you don't.

absolutelynotpc.bsky.social•7 days ago

I still haven’t heard any journalist ask her “And did you actually do what you were convicted for?”

indy75012.bsky.social•7 days ago

No need to ask : the court found out she did…

absolutelynotpc.bsky.social•7 days ago

But she should be prodded on the subject. Hard!

robinthemint.bsky.social•7 days ago

Whilst out of Office, she can write her version of mein Kampf and the right wing media apologists can ease her way into power because supporting far right politicians always works out so well for the ordinary citizen as can be seen in WW2.

nicoklaus.bsky.social•7 days ago

60 million dead worldwide for stupidity.

What a hell.

The "great eternal fuehrer" suicided himself in the bunker.
Bc he could not face the consequences of a reality he himself created:

Nuremberg.

danrealitybites.bsky.social•6 days ago

And why did she need €€€?

So she could pay back loans from an obscure Russian bank.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-russian-bank-gave-marine-le-pens-party-a-loan-then-weird-things-began-happening/2018/12/27/960c7906-d320-11e8-a275-81c671a50422_story.html

gretat.bsky.social•7 days ago

And was sentenced according to the law she herself helped create

mariasale8.bsky.social•7 days ago

She's lucky it's not actual prison, rather than home detention.

peterbeckett.bsky.social•7 days ago

Hmm. I wonder whether any other hard right parties might have done something like this.....

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/european-parliament-tightens-ukip-purse-strings/

clarissaoakes.bsky.social•6 days ago

The fucking law she fucking voted for!! :D

nicoklaus.bsky.social•7 days ago

Reposted.

And ### Pinned ### to my profile.

More people could do it. IMPV.

nicoklaus.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yesss.

Rightwing nuts are having huge problems in accepting the rule of law.

Non violent protests by the righwingers?

We shall see.

killingflowers.bsky.social•7 days ago

Trump will now invite her to a state dinner or some other faff that he does for the other convicted criminals.

hickson1chris.bsky.social•7 days ago

Exactly!

tml.urbanists.social.ap.brid.gy•4 days ago

@iandunt.bsky.social Add to that, she is far from the only French important politician that has been found guilty of similar serious crimes in the last decades.

indy75012.bsky.social•7 days ago

Especially, it lasted many years, and they never acknowledged this. Hence the severity of the judge, who was fully right.

I hope that, in appeal, she'll have a heavier penalty !

ledredman.bsky.social•7 days ago

The only question is since Farage committed exactly the same crime, why was he allowed to just pay the money back, but has faced no criminal charges?

nico0511.bsky.social•7 days ago

If it wasn’t for those pesky kids…hang on…if it wasn’t for that pesky evidence and an independent judiciary (in a country that rather wonderfully doesn’t put up with her special brand of shit)…

bikeymcbikeface.bsky.social•7 days ago

Why isn't she in fucking jail?

frankexchange.bsky.social•7 days ago

Because France is notoriously soft on white collar crime.

mak-nono.bsky.social•7 days ago

She’s as guilty as any embezzling thief ever is, regardless of her fame.

ragnar-viking.bsky.social•7 days ago

What this piece doesn’t say is that they took the funds because they were almost destitute having had to return funding from a Kremlin backed bank when they got found out so they took the EU money to bail them out in France. She deserves her punishment.

barmanpolitics.bsky.social•7 days ago

Also highlighting, that like Farage, most of the disruptive far right which hates the EU and its successes are funded out of Moscow.

Divide and conquer, and all that.

nicoklaus.bsky.social•7 days ago

And who else has got a strong interest in a divided Europe?

American politics.

Else?

OK: China.

mariasale8.bsky.social•7 days ago

How could you forget Russia?

barmanpolitics.bsky.social•7 days ago

Well I think we started with Russia so it seemed redundant to mention it again.

mariasale8.bsky.social•7 days ago

Oops. Sorry: missed that.

nicoklaus.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Well, Germany has pledged in its #Grundgesetz that the army is for defense only.

NATO has somehow pledged not to expand further East and not to station nuclear anf other high profile weapons in the reach of Russia. But #Romania etc.

Cooperation and total trustworthyness. Worldwide. No lies. So.

chauncey1970.bsky.social•7 days ago

*cough"

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nicoklaus.bsky.social•7 days ago

The "Dirty Laundry" man. Oh yeah.

aozora-aonami.bsky.social•7 days ago

Murdoch is the single most responsible person for this unfolding horror. He will live in infamy at the level of evil of Hitler.

barmanpolitics.bsky.social•7 days ago

Emperor Palpatine to Hitler as Vader.

capacitygear.bsky.social•7 days ago

I thought you left the EU?

mpl28.bsky.social•7 days ago

Sorry didn’t realise that because we left the EU we can’t have an interest in European affairs.
Thanks for clearing that up

roberohn.bsky.social•7 days ago

It’s nuts that you have to even skeet that.

stevemur67.bsky.social•7 days ago

Now do Nigel Farage.

gimulnautti.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy•7 days ago

@iandunt.bsky.social They’ll lie to their deathbed. Because they don’t give a shit, never have and never will.

leetaylorbythesea.bsky.social•7 days ago

The decline of the rule of law and 'liberal democracy' continues. What comes next is troubling

homomoleculus.bsky.social•7 days ago

And yet in today’s Times Dan “Dan the Brexit man” Hannon is sure she is not guilty of anything and if she is it’s a technicality. He always defaults to the worse take, doesn’t he?

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richmountbasket.bsky.social•7 days ago

Farage did exactly the same, misusing European parliament funds. It's appalling that he wasn't also prosecuted in the UK and banned from public office, except UK authorities are too spineless.

gillwest.bsky.social•7 days ago

Great article. Ian & Ben Ansell are the two exceptions on this one. The ‘Marine the Martyr/didn’t they learn from Trump?’ hot takes are infuriating: effectively, ‘for fear of unknown consequences populists should never be held to account’.🤷‍♀️ Odd how the law & order types don’t like law in practice.

nicolekidmansnose.bsky.social•7 days ago

Lobby journalism has taken values out of politics, it's all horse race now

barbsie.bsky.social•7 days ago

margaretmorgan.bsky.social•7 days ago

Great piece, thanks

stargirl1620.bsky.social•7 days ago

📌

boloboffin.bsky.social•7 days ago

Le Pen is lucky that's all the French people required of her.

kirkville.com•7 days ago

And she’s not the first. Every major political party in France has had people convicted, jailed, and or excluded from running for office for similar offenses. Including one ex prime minister who took the fall for Jacques Chirac.

zhdar.bsky.social•7 days ago

It. Was. Fraud.

And fraud is theft.

julialt.bsky.social•7 days ago

Not just that she broke the law. Her embezzlement over SEVERAL YEARS, and on top, the contempt which she and her party members showed to the EU Parliament showed how deliberate & nasty their disdain was.

pauliom.bsky.social•7 days ago

Far Right politicians are only ever in it to line their own pocket

sutherla.bsky.social•7 days ago

We could run it the other way, voting for politicians to be tagged and put under house arrest 😁

amberlin.bsky.social•7 days ago

My sentiments exactly, with not as much swearing probably.

sheepsheed.bsky.social•7 days ago

This substack piece is so clearly written. It’s like a vaccination against all the mealy mouthed excuses peddled by huge chunks of the media. Thank you.

coffindodger.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/catsinfrance.bsky.social/post/3llqo3ew5ps2h

pamsel.bsky.social•7 days ago

Imagine that, a fascist breaking the law and embezzling funds from the government. Imagine.

peteoldboy.bsky.social•7 days ago

Furthermore, she was found guilty of robbing EU tax payers.

0xcd16.bsky.social•7 days ago

So same as Farage? Obviously never prosecuted in the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/03/eu-recovers-200000-from-ukip-meps-accused-of-misusing-funds

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communitycafe.bsky.social•7 days ago

🤍

grungehamster.bsky.social•7 days ago

I feel like this sort of thing was seen as reasonable by anyone paying attention a decade ago when populists got caught abusing their authority. Like Berlusconi got popped, makes sense, got it.

Now that people have one here they see it as conspiratorial to make expectations their guy face justice.

catsinfrance.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/catsinfrance.bsky.social/post/3llqo3ew5ps2h

craiggrannell.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yeah, but she never meant her, obvs. Because he far-right is special and can never be wrong. Or something.

nickren.bsky.social•7 days ago

They need protecting because they’re special snowflakes who can never have their feelings hurt or they might get angry

pantodemocracy.bsky.social•5 days ago

Ah, yes... Farage warning we mustn't "poke the Russian bear"!

del-boy.bsky.social•7 days ago

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leemeade.bsky.social•7 days ago

They’ll steal ginger from a gingersnap.

raymondbennett.bsky.social•7 days ago

The real story for the UK media is how France manages to prosecute senior politicians (Chirac, Sarkozy, Juppé, Le Pen r etc.) for corruption / embezzlement, abeit slowly, but the UK does not.

kenem.bsky.social•7 days ago

🎯 Vive La République. The French fought hard for their democracy and it shows.

miguel-alemania.bsky.social•7 days ago

They invented some handy tools to repair their Democracy, didn’t they?

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kenem.bsky.social•7 days ago

😂 Maybe there's an app for that now?

miguel-alemania.bsky.social•7 days ago

btw:

Farage's money left the UK for the EU in good time before Brexit. Farage himself remained in GB to fulfill his evil work.

He's a crook but he's not stupid.

raymondbennett.bsky.social•7 days ago

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/12/nigel-farage-eu-salary-docked-claim-misspent-public-funds

raymondbennett.bsky.social•7 days ago

looks like he got off lightly

peterthurlow.bsky.social•7 days ago

Point taken.

rudolph14.bsky.social•7 days ago

And Fillon! He was also about to run for president when he got barred, fined and out under house arrest for giving his wife a fake job. It was only 8 years ago!

lifelearner47.bsky.social•7 days ago

We 🇫🇷 don't need to mention what Le Pen did because this story has been going on for several years and only those living off grid will be unaware of the accusations, counter-accusations etc. Our judicial system is incredibly slow, and in the end, we just don't want to hear all the details again.

alembisque.bsky.social•7 days ago

Not heard of it before,but is it a French thing to have a 'fucking law'?🥸

joobileejoolz.bsky.social•7 days ago

Probably! Rum ‘uns those frenchies!

chasmanthium.bsky.social•7 days ago

Jesus, Ian, this is brilliant...especially the Katya Adler piece. It was appalling.

chasmanthium.bsky.social•7 days ago

If the reporting styles used here were used to cover the riots last August, those twats who set fire to hotels would have been allowed to justify their actions because they represented "the will of the people."

pinarellofish.bsky.social•7 days ago

I think you could have been a bit more direct here Ian.
👍

jodiesun.bsky.social•7 days ago

Including misappropriating funds to hire a Le Pen family driver!

bournemouth4eu.bsky.social•7 days ago

This is such an important point, Ian. Thank you for making it

scharlatanka.bsky.social•6 days ago

Thank you for this and for mentioning the appeal as well - I was trying ro figure out if this was the highest instance decision.

alxrchrds.bsky.social•7 days ago

This is the sort of journalism I seek out, and Britain needs much more of it.