In 1789, Parisians stormed the Bastille to tear down walls of tyranny – not build new ones.
Marine Le Pen was found guilty of misusing EU funds and banned from standing for office. Yet the movement grows. Among supporters, she’s seen not as disgraced – but as a martyr. And in her absence, they’ve rallied around Jordan Bardella: younger, slicker, and no less dangerous.
If he becomes President, what will Bastille Day celebrate? A people’s uprising for justice, or a state that turns liberty into a privilege for the few?
Bardella’s Bastille cannot be allowed to become a reality.
A threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere. Le Pen’s National Rally in France. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the Britain. Trump’s MAGA in the United States. These movements echo one another, and they all rely on the same playbook: sow distrust, silence dissent, and strip away rights one by one.
This Bastille Day, we remember: Revolutions are built on hope. Far-right movements are built on fear.
Our job is to know the difference and stand on the right side of history.
All the best,
James Patrick
Campaigns and Content Officer
Open Britain
