Former French prime minister Gabriel Attal, now leading President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, has criticised National Rally (RN) and its de facto leader Marine Le Pen, arguing they were attacking France’s democracy.
“The RN has become the party of double standards,” Attal said on April 6 during a political rally.
“They are demanding ineligibility for everyone, except for their elected officials. You steal, you pay,” he added.
Attal insisted that political figures must be “exemplary”, questioning how society could tackle youth crime when politicians themselves sometimes sidestep the rules.
RN has been protesting against a recent court ruling that sentenced Le Pen and imposed an immediate ban on her running in elections over the embezzlement of EU funds.
National Rally (RN) party leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzlement of public funds and was banned from running in elections with immediate execution.https://t.co/U60lC9rq2G
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 31, 2025
“How can we be credible when dealing with juvenile delinquents if politicians don’t have to play by the rules?”, he said.
He also accused RN of “attacking French institutions” and “undermining the judiciary”.
He criticised party President Jordan Bardella for what he said was suggesting that justice had become “the enemy of democracy”.
Mocking Le Pen’s self-comparison to Russian opposition martyr Alexei Navalny, Attal said: “Madame Le Pen, you are not Alexei Navalny. You are one of his executioners’ pawns.”
“We know what resistance to oppression looks like,” Attal said, “and it’s not the face of Madame Le Pen.”
Speaking to a modest crowd, reportedly fewer than 10,000 attendees, he positioned himself as the final firewall against the “far-right”.
During his speech, the former prime minister denounced “unprecedented interference” in the form of support from US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for Le Pen.
“The RN is not Trump’s ally, it is the groupie of Trumpism,” Attal stated.
“After agreeing to be a pawn of Putinism, the RN is now a service provider for Trumpism in France,” he added.
Attal’s rally took place on the same day as the RN protest against Le Pen’s ineligibility sentence, which prevents her from running in France’s next presidential race.
