“I am opposed to the death penalty, but I am in favor of establishing actual life imprisonment in law,” says Jordan Bardella

The president of the National Rally declared that he was against the return of the death penalty.

The president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella affirmed this Monday on franceinfo that he was “opposed to the death penalty”while being “favorable” to the “real life”kind of “capital punishment”, according to him. A few days after the disappearance of the former Minister of Justice and father of the abolition of the death penalty Robert Badinter, the leader of the RN assured that he was against the “reinstatement of the death penalty”.

“I think that real perpetuity must be able to be established in French society”, Jordan Bardella repeated. “Real perpetuity does not exist today in French law”he explained, adding that“There is a maximum sentence of 30 years subject to 22 years of security”. This form of punishment would occur for “inexpiable cases”he explained, citing “terrorism cases, multi-convicted criminals, particularly in cases of crime or pedophilia”. “I think there are cases where, when you are convicted, given the danger you represent to society, you go into prison, you should not be able to come out”he defended.
“Actual life imprisonment is already in French law in articles 221-3 and 221-4 of the penal code since 1994”responded immediately on X the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, specifying that it was “of the punishment inflicted” to the jihadist Salah Abdeslam for his participation in the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris. “Jordan Bardella has lost another opportunity to keep quiet”castigated the Minister of Justice. “There is one thing they will never be able to make up for: their incompetence!”he tackled.

The death penalty, a “generational difference” with Marine Le Pen

The opportunity for Jordan Bardella to return to “the generational difference” between himself and Marine Le Pen over the death penalty. If the three-time presidential candidate renounced the reinstatement of the death penalty in her 2017 and 2022 program, she nevertheless proposed to submit the question by referendum to the French in 2012. “I am for the scale of sentences and I think that the death penalty contributes to it”she explained in 2011. In 2015, she still believed that“in a personal capacity, as a lawyer”, “a penal system cannot stand without capital punishment”. “For me, capital punishment is real life imprisonment”swept the young boss of the RN. “Marine Le Pen has evolved on this issue. She said it, she said it again during the last presidential election that obviously, it was not a question, in our presidential project of 2017 and 2022, of reestablishing the death sentence”he insisted.

Two days before the national tribute to the former Minister of Justice Robert Badinter which will be held at Place Vendôme in Paris, where the Ministry of Justice is headquartered, the boss of the RN assures that his party “will be represented” if he is “guest. “For a tribute like that to be paid to him, it seems legitimate to me”, justified Jordan Bardella. “Once again, it’s not my movement, he continued, but I think that when the person is no longer there and that precisely this person served the Republic as minister, we sometimes have to know how to erase our personal convictions to bow before people who served the State”. Keeper of the Seals of François Mitterrand (1981-1986), Robert Badinter carried the law which abolished the death penalty, and was for more than fifty years one of the main targets of the extreme right. In June 1981, the president of the National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen demonstrated with around a hundred police officers under the windows of the Ministry of Justice, shouting “Badinter assassin!”.