The Regime Media versus Le Pen and the French

The Regime Media versus Le Pen and the French
by Brownstone Institute at Brownstone Institute

Marine Le Pen is the most popular leader in France, yet the taxpayer-funded press corps ignores that salient detail while it smears her supporters as radicals amidst the lawfare campaign aimed at barring her from power. 

Last week, Parisian judge Bénédicte de Perthuis sentenced Le Pen to 4 years and banned her from participating in the 2027 Presidential election for purportedly misappropriating funding from the European Union. In a profoundly Orwellian ruling, de Perthuis insisted that Le Pen’s actions amounted to a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe.” 

Beyond the obvious concerns that the courts have yet again applied double standards of justice to punish populist leaders, the lawfare represents a direct and coordinated attack, amplified by state-funded media, against the will of the people of France. 

In the wake of Le Pen’s conviction, state-funded media, from NPR to the BBC to Politico, and supposedly neutral wires like Reuters and the Associated Press, have tagged Le Pen with the label of “FAR-RIGHT,” a not-so-subtle association with fascism and Nazism. The editors collectively ignore that they are labeling a plurality of the country as extremists given that polls show Le Pen is fifteen points ahead of the second-most popular candidate in the 2027 Presidential election.

So what are the French citizens’ far-right impulses that the press corps denounces in every headline? On immigration, the New York Times explains that the National Rally believes that “nations need effective borders that can be sealed tight.” In foreign policy, NPR warns that Le Pen’s position “would include stopping French deliveries of long-range missiles to Ukraine.” 

For economics, the Associated Press cites the party’s pledges to “defend purchasing power by cutting taxes on fuel, gas and electricity” as well as tax cuts for companies increasing domestic wages. Evidently, this pro-sovereignty, anti-war, working-class coalition represents an existential threat to the global cabals of power, which now rely on their media stenographers to smear their opponents. 

Increasingly, we learn that the public has been unknowingly funding these outlets through tax dollars and USAID disbursements. These expenditures have included $34 million to Politico, extensive payments to the New York Times, and direct funding to BBC Media Action. As Josh Stylman writes at Brownstone, USAID’s chief mission has been to act as “an architect of global consciousness.” 

That architecture relies on tarnishing the reputation of France’s most popular political party as its ruling class ignores the domestic instability it has spawned. 

Le Pen’s popularity stems in large part from the French government’s longstanding disregard for its citizens’ desire to reduce immigration. As of April 2023, 82% of the French (including 81% of 18-24-year-olds) support an immigration law facilitating deportations. Seven in 10 French citizens want a national referendum on immigration. And as leaders ignore those pleas, voters increasingly turn toward the country’s foremost immigration restrictionist. A poll last week showed that Le Pen is the leading candidate across all age groups for the 2027 Presidential election. As of last year, she held a 27 percentage-point lead over President Macron’s Renaissance Party among voters under 34. 

This popularity is unsurprising given the ramifications of mass third-world immigration in France. Earlier this year, a Parisian theater declared bankruptcy after hundreds of African migrants moved in and refused to leave for months. Reports consistently show that foreigners account for over 70% of violent robberies, thefts, and rapes in the French capital city. 

But rather than respond to voters’ concerns, French and European leaders have attacked their critics for dissenting against their wildly unpopular immigration initiatives. A series of terrorist attacks, including Charlie Hebdo, the November 2015 Paris attacks, and the 2016 Bastille Day attacks have killed hundreds in the last decade. 

Radical Islam, violent crime, and depleted public resources have naturally led to massive support for immigration restrictionists, but France has accelerated its demographic change despite its population’s overwhelming opposition. From 2014 to 2024, France’s foreign-born population increased by over 20%. When faced with criticism, French President Macron has denounced Le Pen’s popular calls for immigration reduction as “very clear xenophobia.” 

Macron’s smears, like the labels in the media, are not limited to Le Pen – they are aimed at silencing dissent. This disregard for the will of the citizens has not drawn the ire of the European Union or been labeled a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe.” Instead, the destruction of political opponents appears in lockstep with the rest of the West. 

In the United States, beyond the well-known lawfare against President Trump, the global hegemon has weaponized the judicial system against those who resist its advocacy for forever wars, open borders, and economic fiefdom. The brazen persecutions of Steve Bannon, Julian Assange, Roger Ver, Peter Brimelow, and others have been designed to extinguish dissent and the democratization of power. 

In the United Kingdom, Tommy Robinson is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for criticizing Great Britain’s immigration policies. He was initially admitted to HMP Belmarsh, “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay,” and prison guards warned last month that he may be killed by Muslim inmates. 

In Romania, Calin Georgescu, who won the first round of last year’s presidential elections, has been barred from continuing his presidential campaign because prosecutors charged him for association with “fascist, racist, or xenophobic characteristics.” 

Throughout the West, there is a “serious” and potentially “lasting attack on the rules of democratic life” that the regime media has aided and abetted. 

The West must decide: is democracy a slogan or a reality? Are the people going to be in charge of picking their actual leaders or will an entitled elite forever run our systems behind the scenes? 

The grave warnings about the end of democracy with populist leaders seem to be headed toward the entrenchment of a strange oligarchy, the perpetuation of a ruling class that has surreptitiously managed society behind the scenes. 

People are catching on, at last. 

The Regime Media versus Le Pen and the French
by Brownstone Institute at Brownstone Institute – Daily Economics, Policy, Public Health, Society