DND Report
French populist politician Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds.
She will not be allowed to participate in the 2027 French Presidential Election. Like any populist political figure, she claimed that the court’s decision is a “political decision”. Le Pen will face a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended (to be served under house arrest) and a €100,000 ($108,000) fine.
The judge of the court, Bénédicte de Perthuis, called the corruption of Le Pen a “serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France.” The court observed immediate ban on the convicted is to avoid “democratic public unrest” that would result from the election of a person (Le Pen) convicted of embezzlement.
“No politician in Europe can dare to justify his/her extramarital relations, audio or video sex tapes of phone sex. In Pakistan, the populist leader Imran Khan had been proud of his extramarital relations and his audio phone sex”
In the politics of populism, where the law is suppressed by narrative, public sentiments are made an obstacle in the path of justice, and corrupt governance is imposed by weakening state institutions. Recently, in Pakistan, it has been proven that whether it is a populist leader or a common criminal, if the crime is committed, it will be punished.
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There are unique similarities found in the majority of populist leaders all over the world, and one of them is that the majority of populist of them claim that they are innocent and cannot be corrupt if they are found guilty of corruption by a court of law. There is only one difference between European populist leaders and South Asian that is their standing position over moral corruption. However, no politician in Europe can dare to justify his/her extramarital relations, audio or video sex tapes of phone sex, but in Pakistan, the populist leader Imran Khan had been proud of his extramarital relations and his audio phone sex.
Related Story: Imran Khan and Morality in Politics
A look into the fate of Western politicians who lost their political careers due to their alleged low moral values includes several scandals such as the Profumo affair (British politics during the early 1960s), Griveaux scandal (France), Chris Pincher scandal, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi scandal (bunga bunga sex parties), Hungarian MEP József Szájer scandal, Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal (French politics), Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias Scandal (USA) and Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho scandal (USA) and Sen. John Edwards scandal (USA) are immediate examples in which politicians have been guilty of double standards because they were found lower than morality being expected from politicians.
Like Imran Khan, Le Pen also claimed that the “rule of law was completely violated” (on her conviction in corruption charges. Imran Khan also claimed that the “rule of law was completely violated” when he was convicted in the 190-million-pound corruption case.
There was a time when right-wing extremist and populist leaders were considered above the law in Europe and America, and their public popularity controlled the media. It was difficult to punish them, let alone register a case but there is no doubt things have been changed globally.
By punishing a person like Le Pen and Imran Khan a new example of the rule of law looks emerging.
A study of Khan’s conviction and Le Pen’s indicates that immediately after their conviction, Western media tried to call it “political revenge”, but this wave died down in hours in France when her opponents came up with a clear position about her corruption. However, it was lacking in Pakistan where Khan’s opponents had been loaded with contradictory statements and could not establish the truth that Khan is a morally, legally and financially corrupt person. The Le Pen case is an example for politicians in Pakistan of how to handle serious legal matters in media, and politicians who are against Khan should learn from the French political cadre. In French media, statements were short, clear, with no press conferences. Press statements focusing only legal aspects of Le Pen’s corruption appeared from her opponents. However, a section of sane and educated media played a pivotal role in exposing Imran Khan’s deep involvement in financial, legal, and moral corruption. That act of media proved to burst the bubble of Khan’s popularity.
The time has proven that the Pakistani court punished Imran Khan correctly based on all the authentic and irrefutable evidence, and today, the Western media is accepting that the world is full of corrupt populist leaders. If seen, this is a clear acknowledgement of the supremacy of the law prevailing globally, and one can say without exaggeration that Pakistan has set an example in this regard, which is being emulated by European countries today.
The conviction of populist leaders like Imran Khan and Marine Le Pen of France is not a mere coincidence but an indication of a new judicial trend at the global level, where states have understood that if the implementation of the law is not uniform, then democracy and the judiciary will remain a mere spectacle.
The conviction of Marine Le Pen in Europe is proof that world views are changing, and the sphere of justice is now reaching even the “big names” who used to blackmail states in the past due to fame.
It is Pakistan that is not only setting new examples of justice for itself but is also showing the world the path of justice. This proves that Pakistan’s judiciary has emerged as autonomous after the 26th Amendment and its prestige has also started increasing.
On the other hand, there is no denying the fact that not only the law but also the public level, the narrative of populism is clearly dying – there was no significant reaction from the public immediately after the conviction of the founder of PTI, who claimed to be popular in Pakistan, which is clear evidence that the impression of Imran Khan’s popularity is just a social media invention that has no connection with the ground realities.
