Posted by tlogan 3/31/2025
1. She is a woman. Her party is very conservative and a male figure would project more strength and attract voters that she might deter to parties further on the right (yes there are a few)
2. She is been here a long time, so she doesn’t exactly qualify as anti-establishment.
3. It makes the party looked harassed, and it is easy for them to state that “everyone is cheating, but they’re the only one paying for it”. Further cementing the image of the party as one of resistance.
4. She’s not good at debates. She gets destroyed every time.
I have been thinking for a long time that she’s the main reason why the far right doesn’t win in France. People would vote a Trumpian president for sure.
From what I've been able to discern, among countries that have had an elected female head of state, those women often - if not typically - represent the right wing of the local politics. The idea that conservative parties would disdain a female leader as "weak" strikes me as a strawman created by their political opponents. (However, female conservative candidates for leadership do seem uninterested in treating their gender as a reason to vote for them.)
> She is been here a long time, so she doesn’t exactly qualify as anti-establishment.
This fundamentally misunderstands the meaning of the term.
She was caught improperly funneling EU funds to her own party (members), which would give her party an unfair advantage in any current political race.
For example, you can be jailed before your trial ; you can have your driving license overturned if you kill someone ; and, it turns out, you can get banned from running into élections if you're found guilty of embezzlement.
Fortunately for her, the next elections are in 2 years ; I would not be surprised is she get an appeal, a reduced ineligibility sentence to allow her to run in the next legislative election. And she might be happy with that - two round presidential elections are hard for her party, and, more importantly : winning an election is a _terrible_ situation in France.