‘Politicians have always been schemers’: upheld conviction fails to dent Le Pen’s popularity

Presidential bid by leader of far-right National Rally has no shortage of supporters in scenic Montargis

In the small French town of Montargis, Jean-Antoine, a retired decorator, was pleased Marine Le Pen had again shaken up French politics by launching a bid for the presidency , despite her legal woes.

“Even the judges said she didn’t personally profit from the money, it was for her party,” he said of Le Pen’s newly upheld conviction for embezzlement . “All politicians in France have always been schemers, it’s just a fact of life.”

Jean-Antoine, 76, who once painted luxury fashion stores, felt voters for the figurehead of France’s far-right, anti-immigration party National Rally (RN) wouldn’t care about this week’s appeal court decision over Le Pen’s misuse of European parliament funds.

Jean-Antoine’s late father fled to France from Spain during its civil war in the 1930s and became part of the French resistance standing up to occupation by Hitler’s Germany. “But now immigration has to stop,” he said.

Le Pen’s conviction last year had meant she was barred from running for office until the 2030s, but that restriction was shortened by appeal judges this week. This allowed her to declare a phoenix-like return to the presidential race, which will be voted on next year.

The court’s decision came despite its ruling that she was guilty of playing a key part in siphoning off of more than €2.8m through a fake-jobs scam of unprecedented scale and duration, and funnelling it to her cash-strapped party between 2004 and 2016.

Judges ordered her to wear an electronic ankle tag for one year with a curfew at her home, but she has vowed to lodge an appeal with France’s highest court, which will effectively put her conviction and sentence on hold while she campaigns ahead of the presidential vote. Snap polling this week showed her popularity is high and she is in a strong position for the two-round vote next April and May. She previously lost to Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022.

Montargis, 75 miles south of Paris, is known for its scenic canals and its pralines. It is one of many towns that elected rightwing mayors in local elections earlier this year, when RN and its allies more than tripled the number of town halls under their control.

“When they won here, I went to the town hall and I said: ‘I don’t know if you can do any better than the last lot but you can’t do any worse,’” said Jean-Antoine. “And that’s what I’d say to Marine Le Pen . People want change.”

Another local person, an antiques dealer in his 60s who did not want to be named, said: “People will still vote for Le Pen because there’s massive pressure for change. Immigration, benefits, the healthcare system – none of that is working properly and people have had enough. Le Pen’s legal case feels unfair – a leftwing politician wouldn’t have been treated the way Le Pen was by the justice system.”

Montargis played its part in the gilets jaunes anti-government protests of 2018 and 2019, with its new RN mayor, Côme Dunis, now 36, as an active participant. In 2023, there was unrest in the town and damage to shops and businesses when rioting spread across France after Paris police shot and killed Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old boy of Algerian and Moroccan descent, when he failed to comply with an order to stop his car.

RN’s election gain in Montargis, where it took votes from the traditional right, was viewed as a reflection of Marine Le Pen’s 15-year attempt to detoxify the party’s image – changing its name while keeping its hardline anti-immigration policy. Co-founded in 1972 as the Front National by Marine Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen , it has long been seen by its critics as a danger to democracy and as a promoter of racist, antisemitic and anti-Muslim views.

Gisèle, 84, a recently retired girls’ gymnastics coach and competition judge from the area, said the fear of crime and drug-dealing was increasing. She was glad Le Pen was running, but felt the embezzlement conviction could hinder her. “I think this could put a brake on her,” she said.

Le Pen’s decision to stand for president means that her party’s president, Jordan Bardella , will not now run in her place. The 30-year-old had been broadening RN’s voter base by appealing to more bourgeois, higher-income voters from the traditional right.

“I’m disappointed Jordan Bardella isn’t running for president,” said Christiane, a chiropodist. “Bardella is young, he’s close to the people, he had a chance. I like Marine Le Pen, but is France really going to elect a president with a conviction?”

Céline, a pharmacist and centrist voter, said: “I don’t think it’s right to run for French president if you have been convicted.”

Selma, 48, a mother-of-three whose Tunisian grandfather was decorated for fighting for France in second world war, said she feared Le Pen’s growing presence in the campaign was polarising people.

“I’m worried about deep divisions in society,” she said. “Racism is becoming more brazen. The other day I was verbally assaulted in a car park. A woman who wanted my parking spot humiliated me in a racist way, saying she was more French than I was. We’re all human and we don’t choose our skin colour or our origins.”