Marine Le Pen and the Future of France
Marine Le Pen is the leader of the Rassemblement National, or National Rally (RN) political party, who several years ago used EU Parliament funds for her party’s benefit. For that, she was barred for three years from running in any European election. Now that sentence has been reduced, and she will be able to stand in the French presidential election to be held in April 2027. And what’s more according to the latest polls, she would win handily against any conceivable opponent. More on this good news can be found here:
Marine Le Pen Would Comfortably Beat Any Opponent in French Presidential Election: Poll
by Kurt Zindulka, Breitbart, July 12, 2026:
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen would win next year’s French presidential election against any opponent, according to a survey conducted after it was revealed this week that she would be eligible to campaign to replace Emmanuel Macron in the Élysée Palace.
This week, the Paris Court of Appeals reduced the sentence against three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen over alleged misuse of EU Parliament funds. Critically, the court cut the time barring her from standing in any European election to allow for the National Rally (RN) leader to stand in the French presidential election next April….
While the two-round system has traditionally enabled neo-liberal forces to sideline populist candidates, including Le Pen on multiple occasions, with no transcendent figure such as Emmanuel Macron to unite the left and centrist wings, it appears the system may play into the National Rally’s hand….
Despite some arguing that the National Rally would fare better if Le Pen were banned from running, given the rising popularity of her 30-year-old deputy Jordan Bardella, the RN leaders put on a unified front, pitching themselves as a joint ticket.
There is no rivalry between Le Pen and Bardella. Had her original three-year ban been upheld, Bardella would have run as the RN’s candidate, but he has willingly stepped back to let Le Pen reassume her role as undisputed leader of the party, and its only presidential candidate. They are trying to rescue their countrymen, and their country, from what could become an inexorable Muslim demographic takeover. This task is too important to allow, as Le Pen and Bardella both recognize, for a split in the party.
Le Pen does not say in that interview that Muslim immigration is one of the subjects — really, the main subject — that she wants to talk to the French about. She does not have to. Everyone in France knows that the subject of Muslims in the country has always been central to her political life. When she mentions she wants to talk to the people of France “about their lives, their security, their purchasing power,” she is alluding to how the Muslim presence had made life so much more unpleasant and physically dangerous because of the skyrocketing number of crimes committed by Muslims, including street robberies, home burglaries, sexual assaults and rapes, and expensive, due to the tens of billions of euros spent on all the benefits that the state lavishes on migrants, most of them maghrébins from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
Le Pen’s skyrocketing support is a result of Macron’s failure, and that of other centrist politicians, to discuss publicly, and to confront head on, the problem of Muslim immigration. That is what she has made the focus of her public life. And that is why the French electorate is ready to have her become the leader of their country. After years of surviving everything the establishment parties could throw at her, she is at long last way ahead in the opinion polls. It is hard to see any way to stop her now. The Muslims in France have guaranteed, by their behavior, her election. And then, buoyed by her support, she will take on the tasks both of ending Muslim immigration, and deporting many of those who are already in France, including those convicted of crimes and those who, in refusing to work, will be deemed “parasites of the Republic.”
Le Pen is not alone. There are candidates, and parties, similar to Le Pen and the RN, in every country of Europe. Think of Rupert Lowe of the Restore Britain Party in the UK, Alice Weidel of Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, Giorgia Meloni of Fratelli d’Italia in Italy, Santiago Abascal of the Vox party in Spain, Geert Wilders of the Party for Freedom, Jimmie Akesson of the Sweden Democrats. Most of these parties, some of which were regarded as “pariah parties” not so long ago, have now risen to first or second place in their nation’s polls.
Europeans have now learned from their unhappy experience with large-scale Muslim migration. They want no more of it, and want too, to undo as much of that Muslim presence in their countries as they can.
What is now happening in France, as elsewhere in Europe, could be called, borrowing a term from American history, the Great Awakening.
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UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveils new government, replacing Starmer era
Britain's new Prime Minister Andy Burnham took office on Monday, reshuffling the cabinet to remove allies of predecessor Keir Starmer and appointing John Healey as finance minister, Ed Miliband as foreign minister and Wes Streeting as defence minister. Burnham pledged a 10-year plan to tackle cost-of-living pressures and signalled a leftward shift.
New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham took power Monday, purging the cabinet of his predecessor's loyalists as he promised a 10-year plan to ease cost-of-living pressures and signalled a tilt to the left.
He immediately got to work after replacing Keir Starmer in Downing Street, holding separate calls with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky before appointing his ministerial team.
Burnham, 56, pledged to re-industrialise Britain and decentralise power as well as end sleeping rough on the streets after he met King Charles III at Buckingham Palace to become the head of government following Starmer's departure.
The monarch's fourth prime minister since he acceded to the throne in 2022, and Britain's seventh in just over a decade, Burnham said the country needed to show the world it could "regain stability".
Accompanied by his wife Marie-France van Heel, Burnham was greeted in Downing Street by resounding applause from supporters, including his mother.
Standing outside his new official residence at Number 10, he vowed to create "a new political model" and "build a new economy".
In his first call with Trump, Burnham underlined his "commitment to defence and security", a UK government spokesperson said.
Trump said he had a "very good conversation" with Burnham and that the two leaders would meet "in the not too distant future".
Burnham "has got a big job ahead of him, but he will be able to do it and, of course, the U.S.A. will be there to help!" Trump posted on Truth Social, noting they discussed trade, military cooperation and demining the Strait of Hormuz.
To Zelensky, Burnham reaffirmed Britain's "resolute commitment" to Ukraine in its defence of Russia's invasion, according to Downing Street.
He also moved swiftly to stamp his authority on the new government by sacking several Starmer loyalists from his cabinet, including Rachel Reeves and David Lammy, while moving some ministers to other jobs and promoting allies.
Ex-defence secretary John Healey replaced Reeves as finance minister, Ed Miliband became foreign minister and left-wing figurehead Angela Rayner returned to government.
Wes Streeting, who abandoned plans to run against Burnham for the Labour leadership, is now defence minister.
Shabana Mahmood was reappointed interior minister to see through her hardline reforms of Britain's asylum system.
In his brief speech, Burnham said he would "bring forward a new plan for Britain, a 10-year plan", without giving specifics.
Starmer had similarly talked of his intention to lead a "decade of national renewal" before Labour MPs ditched him last month in favour of Burnham, who only returned to parliament four weeks ago.
Burnham promised to "give people some breathing space now, some help with the cost of living", which he said he would start to announce Tuesday.
He also said his first instruction would be a pledge to "end rough sleeping", a measure he attempted to implement as a regional mayor in northern England, although it was not fully successful.
Other announcements included a vague promise to re-industrialise Britain through public procurement and to build more public housing.
He repeated his belief that "in the 1980s Britain took some wrong turns", as he pledged to decentralise power away from Westminster and "put life's essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable".
Starmer departed Downing Street with his wife earlier, insisting his two years in office had made Britain "stronger and fairer".
Starmer led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024 after 14 years of Conservative rule, but his premiership became characterised by scandals, missteps and policy U-turns.
Burnham, the ex-mayor of Greater Manchester nicknamed the "King of the North", was parachuted in by Labour after Starmer resigned, with MPs viewing him as the party's best chance of reining in Reform, led by Nigel Farage.
But his swift "coronation" without a contest as Labour leader and now prime minister, by virtue of Labour's huge parliamentary majority, has raised questions about how he will achieve his aims.
Opposition politicians have questioned his mandate and called for a snap election.
French President Emmanuel Macron sent congratulations, urging Burnham to "give new momentum to the partnership" with the European Union.
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