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Jean-Marie Lepen's Trial
Publisher
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P.O.L
Parution date
:
1998
EAN
:
9782867446405
Description
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s unexpected success in the first round of the French presidential elections in May 2002, forces France and all Western democracies to reexamine the role of right-wing parties in mainstream politics.
In Le Procès de Jean-Marie Le Pen, Mathieu Lindon imagines the trial of a young follower of Le Pen’s Front National party who admits to killing a young man of Algerian descent. The protagonist of the story is the defense lawyer, Pierre Mine, who, despite what might be expected, is a liberal-minded, Jewish homosexual. Mine accepted the case in hopes of blaming the murder on Le Pen and thus ruining the politician’s career. Through Lindon’s precise and journalistic style, we learn of the race riots sparked by the trial, of the ease with which Le Pen uses the events to his benefit, and of the disruptions that Mine’s involvement causes in his personal life. Ultimately, the defendant hangs himself in his cell and Le Pen publicly accuses all of France of being fascist in its treatment of him and his followers. Mine’s plan is undermined before he learns what the outcome would have been, and he never has the chance to fully condemn his adversary.
Author
Mathieu Lindon : Mathieu Lindon is the acclaimed author of Le Procès de Jean-Marie Le Pen, excerpted in the January 2008 issue of Words Without Borders (www.wordswithoutborders.org). He has written a dozen novels and has been translated into Spanish, Greek, and Italian.
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