I love French bistros – where one can have a hot or cold beverage, and enjoy a classic French lunch. Bistronomy is a new way to appreciate French cuisine beyond gastronomy.
For a political scientist, Paris’s bistros offer insight into the nation’s political mood – or a bottom-up analysis on the politics of the day by talking with, and listening to ordinary French people.
Often, a key subject is political corruption, some of the bistrozens tar all politicians as corrupt, which is not the case, not in France, anyway. France is one of the least corrupt nations according to Transparency International which scored the Republic 71/100, placing it 20 out of 180 nations, 180 being the most corrupt. Australia came in at 14 with a score of 75/100 in 2023, Greece with a score of 49/100 and was placed at 59, while Afghanistan, which is very corrupt, scored 20/100 and was fell to 160 out of 180.
However, the far right made corruption a key issues against the mainstream political system regardless of facts. The right claimed corruption was ruining the country. But, the world was turned upside down in September 30 for the right’s National Rally.
Marine Le Pen is on trial facing charges of fraud, along with her are 24 members and staff of the National Rally she leads. Bénédicte de Perthuis, President of the Court in Paris, estimates the damages to be €4.5 million.
Le Pen, if found guilty will be charged for the crime of using European Parliament funds for to pursue her own and her party’s campaign strategy in France. With the Treaty of Rome of 1951, six Western European countries agreed to establish a hybrid organisation with intergovernmental and federal characteristics known now as the European Union. Since then, the EU has evolved beyond a simple common market, and relies on institutions such as the European Parliament, which plays an essential role in decision-making and control over EU legislation, affairs, and nominations to key positions. Australia’s federal minister for trade Don Farrell is wading through labyrinthine negotiations with the European Parliament, over product names like Feta, and Prosecco, not Greece or Italy, in his attempt to land on a free trade deal with Europe.
Every four years, millions of Europeans vote to elect 720 members of the European Parliament. Aside from a salary, the parliament provides each EMP with funding to hire staff that are completely dedicated to EU matters. However, it appears that some French EMPs hired EU-paid staff members who work for French political parties or even for themselves in France as bodyguards or personal assistants.
During an informal discussion with National Rally members revealed that they seem to underestimate the risks that lie ahead. They perceive what happened as political persecution and anticipate a light punishment in the end.
Despite the fact that Marine Le Pen has spent a lot of her time criticising the lax legal system in the past. Then, just look at what happened a few months ago for the same reason. Seven former European Parliament members from another French political party were convicted for exactly the same reason. And in that case, only € 262,000 were misappropriated, far less than the reported €4.5 million by Marine Le Pen!
If she is found guilty on November 27, 2024, she risks up to 10 years in jail, and will be barred from running as president in the 2027 elections. This could be a ten-magnitude earthquake in French politics.
Who could have imagined a presidential election without a candidate from the Le Pen family? Marine Le Pen received 37 per cent of the national vote in the July 7 parliamentary elections and 41.45 per cent in the April 24, 2022, presidential election. This is the closest she’s got to meeting her ultimate ambition of becoming President of the French Republic. Yet, in just seven weeks, her dream might turn into a nightmare over alleged corruption.
Dr George Tassiopoulos is a Greek French political scientist, with a doctorate in political science from the University of East Paris. He was born in Athens, and has lived in France for the past 22 years where he teaches geopolitics in a business school in Paris.
