When a verdict from the Paris Criminal Court flashed across Henin Beamont’s screen, many customers at Café de la Pike received it for what Marine Le Pen had predicted, outrageous and disappointing.
The far-right political leader was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to four years in prison. He was suspended for two years, fined over $100,000 on house arrest for two.
However, most stab wounds were decisions that barred her from running for office for five years, making her unable to qualify for the run in France’s 2027 presidential election.
For those here, Le Pen is not a leader of the national rally and is not a three-time presidential candidate. She is a local MP in the House of Representatives.
“I’m tired,” says Jean-Marc Sergheraert, 70, a retired charity manager, on a big TV screen. So Le Pen condemned the decision as a politically motivated and unfair decision, saying that her sentence would be held even if she sued.
“She’s right,” added Sergerat. “She has to protect herself and she has to go right to the end. If she wants to take us to the Capitol like they did in Washington, I’ll go to Elise,” he said, referring to the Presidential Palace in Paris.
Nearby, 86-year-old Arlett Vanderleek agreed to a light beer flute. “We’re just banning the French from doing anything and we’re just pushing us further to do that,” she said. “She’s going to get millions of votes.”
Le Pen said it would be difficult to resolve her challenge in time for 2027. She was found guilty of diverting European Parliament funds to her party.
“This decision should dislike everyone. It’s completely arbitrary,” said Steve Briois, mayor of Henin Bearmont’s national assembly.
If a place in France sways with rage at the verdict, it would be Henin Beamont, a town of 26,000 people in the former industrial Heartland in the north of France, where the mines first closed in the 1980s, then many factories closed and destroyed by the mines, the victims of globalization.
The region’s unemployment rate was more than twice the national average in 2021, the last census.
Taking into account this “forgotten territory,” Le Pen’s party made it one of its bases. She never lived in the area, but Le Pen chose it as her political center and first ran in 1998, continuing to represent the region and European political regions. In 2017, she managed to win a seat in the Parliament.
In her final presidential election in 2022, she won 67% of local votes. In last summer’s legislative elections, many people expected the local party to win the landslide and run the government. Instead, the Left Union and President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party formed the “dam” by tying a single anti-national rally vote for candidates in the national outflow.
Still, at Henin Beemont, Le Pen was re-electioned in the first round with a big margin.
“They want to remove her from the presidency,” said Karen Hallett, 57, who arrived at the market Tuesday morning to pick up supplies for her older mother. “Last time they used the dam. This is another tactic.”
For many locals, Le Pen’s fidelity to the party is less about ideology than understanding her party’s retail politics. They cite the town’s new aquatic centre and Christmas market. They feel respected by her and the party.
“She’s fine. I took a picture of her with the kids at the flea market,” said Hallett, a mom at home. “I don’t think she’s racist. I’m from the city centre. I think everyone should be respected.”
The town had a history of corruption that preceded Le Pen’s conviction. Former socialist mayor Gerard Daronjurville was convicted of stealing 4 million euros on a fake bill and sentenced to four years in prison. For some locals, the latest court decisions have deepened their irony.
“There were communists, socialists, national gatherings. They’re all the same,” said Mohamed Osedrato, 60, who enjoys maintaining Diavolo at the bar after shift work maintenance at the hospital.
Marin Tonderier, an elected councillor for Henin Beamont and national Green Party leader, took him to the news channel and noted that the national rallies are seeking stricter law enforcement and a more severe ruling.
“It shows you their hypocrisy,” she said. “I’ve been asked about the ‘system that was enforced against them.’ The only system installed is what they set up to divert public funds. ”
She was not the only person in the town to think of it that way, but perhaps a more quiet tone.
“She always slanders foreigners. She says she doesn’t respect the law,” Karim Zoi said.
He then used the term often applied to immigrants: voio, or thugs.
“If they’re thugs,” he said, “They should pay.”
