The Witch Hunt Playbook

THE WAR ON TRUTH, PART III: When populists break the law and benefit from it

There’s chaos, and then there’s what’s happening across a swath of the democratic world — more like a slow-burning coup in which the populist right is at war with the system. The latest example came last week as France’s Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzling millions in European Union funds and banned from seeking public office for five years. The response from her far-right allies was familiar: Cries of “witch hunt,” denouncements of judicial overreach, and claims of persecution by liberal elites.

It’s the same playbook used by Donald Trump in his legal battles in America. In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is using it to deflect attention from the unfolding Qatargate fiasco (and from every other one of his astounding array of scandals). It’s the script Romania’s far-right followed after candidate Calin Georgescu’s electoral victory in November’s first-round presidential vote was overturned by the courts amid accusations of financial misdoing and Russian interference on his behalf. One after another, these figures claim an unelected “deep state” conspires against a champion of the people.

They have discovered that breaking the law — and then waging war against the institutions tasked with enforcing it — is not a political liability but a strategic asset. They create a narrative in which courts and law enforcement are not impartial arbiters of justice, but unelected enemies of the people.

This narrative is potent precisely because democratic institutions, by design, are not elected.