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.”