I do not think for a second that the French hard right leader Marine Le Pen is insane. She may well be bad and dangerous, I tend to think that she is, but she is not mad. But right now the French and European elites are doing their best to rebuild her career and make her a martyr by suggesting she is clinically insane and to try and lock her up. To recap..
Madame Le Pen’s "crime" was to tweet three graphic images of ISIS murdering folks making it clear she thoughts their acts were wrong and evil. Surely we can all agree that on this issue? While wrong on most things , on this matter Madame le Pen is bang on the money.
But the French authorities have used a law, surely designed for jihadists themselves trying to recruit, not for folks horrified by ISIS, to charge Le Pen with the dissemination of violent images. If she is found guilty she faces up to three years in jail and a 75,000 Euro fine and the charges against her could prevent her running for the European parliament next year.
Now a judge has ordered her to face psychiatric evaluation to see if she is nutso or fit to face trial.
Whatever happened to Je Suis Charlie? This whole process is a farce but is one that President Macron – now the last popular leader among his own people in the Western World with a rating of just 20% - goes along with. To his credit the leader of the French communists, Mr Melenchon, says this is absurd and of course it is. Marine Le Pen may be many things but she is not insane.
And were the French to jail her or fine her for disseminating images, the sort that are sloshed around the internet by real jihadists thousands of times a day with apparent impunity, it would be ridiculous. Worst of all, the clear persecution of Len Pen in such an unfair way will only make her and her loathsome National Front party appear as martyrs. As the Macron Government crumbles and stumbles towards electoral oblivion, with a new own goal scored every week do the political elites really want to give such a boost to the extreme right in France?
Maybe they do. I note how the Independent here in Britain reports this
“Daesh is THIS!” Ms Le Pen wrote alongside the images, using an offensive Arabic name for the group.
Ends.
Offensive to who? To ISIS or Daesh yes but it is the word used throughout the Arab world to describe these evil vermin. It is almost as if the Indy – a paper for the elites - is so keen to portray Le Pen as offensive, that is happy to spare the feelings of “poor downtrodden ISIS members” as part of that process. Whatever.
Outside the elitist bubble most folks think that being offensive to the ISIS monsters is not such a bad thing and the obvious persecution of Le Pen for saying so will not make the world a better or more tolerant place.