It's really quite a coincidence, isn't it, that prosecutors and courts deeply committed to the transnational elite are finding that all their opponents are criminals who must be arrested and banned from running for office. 

And it only happens when it looks pretty likely that they are about to win office! 

BREAKING:

Today marks the day democracy died in France.

A judge ruled Marine Le Pen is ineligible to run for president in 2027.

She is the frontrunner.

8 MEPs from her party are also barred from participating in elections.

Judges are now deciding elections across the EU. pic.twitter.com/HHuMv8hsja

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 31, 2025

Marine Le Pen, the French far-right leader, was found guilty of embezzlement by a criminal court in Paris on Monday and immediately barred from running for public office for five years, jeopardizing her plans to compete in France’s 2027 presidential election.

The verdict was a major blow to the perennial presidential ambitions of Ms. Le Pen, an anti-immigrant, nationalist politician who has already mounted three failed bids. Looking grim and murmuring “incredible,” she walked briskly out of the courtroom before the judges had completed reading her sentence.

She did not address the dozens of camera crews that awaited her outside the courtroom, but she was expected to speak on French television later on Monday evening. She had spoken of her “serenity” before the hearing but there was little evidence of that.

Ms. Le Pen is the clear front-runner in opinion polls for the 2027 election. Her ineligibility is certain to provoke strong protests from her own party, but also more broadly, there are likely to be claims that French democracy is being denied. The presiding judge, however, said that nobody was entitled “to an immunity in violation of the rules of the law.”

Luckily, we in the West live in countries deeply devoted to democratic principles, and it is inconceivable that prosecutors and judges would invent BS charges, stretch the boundaries of legality past breaking, or threaten the stability of their political systems by exceeding their legitimate power.

Right? 

RIGHT?! 

The EU has progressively devolved into authoritarianism. V.P. Vance was right to criticize Europe’s descent. In 4 European countries, candidates and parties have been banned to stop them from winning or participating. Past time for the U.S. to leave NATO. pic.twitter.com/lzHIlUyk0q

— Savannah (@BasedSavannah) March 31, 2025

And we have checks and balances--you know, things like appeals. Right?

The court also sentenced Ms. Le Pen, 56, to four years in prison, with two of those years suspended, and a fine of 100,000 euros, or about $108,000. She has long denied any wrongdoing in the case, which involved accusations that her party, the National Rally, illegally used several million euros in European Parliament funds for expenses between 2004 and 2016.

She is widely expected to appeal the verdict, which would put most of her sentence on hold, but not the ban on running for public office. The court ruled that her electoral ineligibility is effective immediately. As a result, only a successful appeal before the 2027 deadline to enter the race would allow her to run.

That is not impossible, but it will be difficult. The appeals process is slow in France, and even if a new trial took take place before the 2027 election, it is unclear whether the prosecution’s case would be overturned.

Oops. I guess not. 

First Trump, then the Romanian elections, and now Marine Le Pen. The Establishment hates threats to their power, and will engage in every kind of lawfare to eliminate those who dare to challenge it. pic.twitter.com/DR7cl3sbta

— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) March 31, 2025

I AM glad to see that the courts are so diligent that they dug up and found accusations of questionable spending--something unheard of in politics because the rules are so well-defined--that go back a decade or two. As with the charges in New York against President Trump, only the diligence of creative prosecutors can protect citizens from the rare politician who can be shown, with great effort, to have bent a rule. 

Authoritarian countries like Russia and China have ruling regimes that jail political opponents, ban them from running for office, censor political opponents, silence opposition news sources, and use propaganda outlets as megaphones for their Narratives.

So, unlike what we have in the free-wheeling West, where everything goes, opposition parties thrive, and government officials restrain themselves from abusing their power. 

In western liberal democracies jailing or shooting the opposition candidate is quickly becoming the preferred election strategy

— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) March 31, 2025

Anybody familiar with history can see the obvious pattern being repeated. Tired, failing regimes that have lost their legitimacy are striking out at their political opponents, sacrificing the very few remaining shreds of credibility to hang onto power. When regimes are young, then tend to rely on authoritarianism to establish power and, at least in many cases, loosen their grip on power to maintain and expand their sense of legitimacy. 

Marie Le Pen, front runner in the next French election, has been barred from running. The Romanian courts throw out the primary and order new elections because their chosen candidate lost.

Because 'We Must Save Democracy!' So sayeth the Elites, and the Elites are honorable men! pic.twitter.com/BcOBp4POWk

— John Ringo SF Author (@Jringo1508) March 31, 2025

Think South Korea or Taiwan, or for that matter the UK as parliamentary democracy developed. The classic case is Rome, which went from kings to a Senate with roughly divided powers in the Consuls and Tribunes. The freer systems prosper, with a good working balance between order and freedom. Innovation, expansion, and cultural supremacy develop. 

Then, the ruling elite becomes greedy, demanding more and more power and resources. 

In Rome, the system became tired and trended toward political suppression, eventually resulting in authoritarian rule. 

That path is being followed in the West. The ruling elite has turned on the people, and this is the result. To retain their grip on power, they return to authoritarianism. 

They are killing what made the West great. Look at how the elite is rushing to destroy Elon Musk, the Edison and Tesla of our time. As he struggles to make humanity interplanetary, they struggle to rein him in and destroy him. 

Europe is lost. The Germanic hoards of the 21st century are already inside the gates. The US is getting there. And the comfortable elite grasp at the few years of power still left to them.